


Of Light and Darkness: Last of the Dragonslayers (Book Two)

by theOGdreymandi87



Series: Of Light and Darkness Trilogy [2]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren (Comics), Он – дракон | I Am Dragon (2015)
Genre: Airships, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Genre Twist, Dragon Kylo Ren, Dragons, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Magic, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Mythology References, POV Kylo Ren, POV Leia Organa, POV Luke Skywalker, POV Rey (Star Wars), POV Second Person, Romantic Fluff, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 70,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25853341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theOGdreymandi87/pseuds/theOGdreymandi87
Summary: The first half of Book Two of my fantasy AU trilogy featuring: an alternate version of Kylo Ren attacking the Raddus, and extra Force Bond scene (cause I know we all wanted one)In Book Two, Rey arrives at the hidden island where the legendary Sir Luke the Skywalker has been in self-exile.  Her mission is to convince him to rejoin the war and have him train her in the ancient ways of the Knighthood.  But Sir Luke wants nothing to do with her except that she see why the Knighthood must die out.  In her loneliness and continued rejection, she discovers a secret, mysterious bond between her and her enemy.  Though she intends on hating him for what he's done, Rey may find that there's more to the Dragon Lord than he seems. Is there still a man inside the monster, after all?
Relationships: Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Rey & Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Of Light and Darkness Trilogy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1867048
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. Isle of the Ancients

**Author's Note:**

> Hoped you enjoyed Part One! Now onto Part Two! I put some fun surprises in there for you, so enjoy :D
> 
> Feel free to leave me a comment when you're done so I know how I'm doing so far. You can also find me on Twitter @theOGdreymandi. I would love to connect with you. 
> 
> I'm currently working on my adaption of TROS but it may take a while due to the sorting out of plot details (and cause it's gonna be looooong). I'm also working on OG content at the same time so juggling is a bit tricky. But just be patient with me and I promise I'll post Part Three as soon as it's done. 
> 
> Here's the links to the reading playlists (Amazon Music and Spotify):
> 
> https://music.amazon.ca/user-playlists/9f6946caccdf4eb383778cd98235959ec2a0?ref=dm_sh_e580-7a64-dmcp-4b1e-e6cda&musicTerritory=CA&marketplaceId=A2EUQ1WTGCTBG2  
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1zCZfqoObQUvjBaqqWNNP5?si=ENCnArtFS6izFOY1H3iQ0w

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey arrives on an ancient seeking the legendary knight but gets more than she bargained for. Sir Luke discovers a heart-breaking truth. Queen Leia's ship is being hunted.

*She stood at the edge of the island’s main peak, face to face with the greatest hero the Kingdom had ever seen.Rey focused on keeping her hands steady as she raised Sahar’s glowing blade up to Sir Luke the Skywalker.She bowed her head, trying to figure out what was respectful of someone in the presence of a legend.The wind carried the sound of the crashing waves far below them and she couldn’t help the monumental feeling that pressed and squeezed her insides. 

This place — this island — was what she had dreamed about since she was a child stranded in a waterless country.Another vision, she now understood. 

But why?Why this place?Had finding the last of the Knights been in her destiny all this time? 

She shivered with the damp, chill of the evening air.

Finally, she felt the Knight take the sword from her hands.She turned her eyes slowly up to his face and saw his strange expression as he examined Sahar in his grasp.She had been so caught up in her nerves and admiration that she nearly missed how the sword’s blade didn’t glow at his touch.But when she realized it, a sinking curiosity struck her.

She shoved it down as far as it would go.There was a perfectly good reason for the sword not to respond to him.Perhaps it was the wooden hand that replaced the end of his right arm.It was reticulated at the finger joints, as if it could move, though Rey wasn’t sure how, especially since the digits remained stiff and immobile as he looked over his family sword. 

She couldn’t help the swell in her heart when Sir Luke removed his gaze from Sahar and looked down at her, his eyes the same turbulent colour of the ocean.He furrowed his brows at her and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again without a sound.In one swift movement, the Knight whirled the sword with his good hand and jammed its point hard into the soft turf of the plateau.He set his jaw and silently stalked passed the sword and the scavenger. 

Wait…what?

She stood up and watched his form disappear up another set of ancient stairs and around an outcropping. 

“Sir Skywalker?” she called.But her voice sounded so young and childish to her own ears that she cringed.

Looking back at the embedded sword, swaying ever so by the strong breeze, Rey was back in the cold, snowy forest, terrified of herself and the creature who hunted her.She quickly turned away from the sight, squeezing her eyes shut and swallowing the panic that the memory had dredged up. She took a steadying breath and ran off in the direction the Knight had gone. 

As she rounded the corner where he had disappeared from her view, the dewy slopes that had risen up on either side of the path tapered off and narrowed into a tall, stone archway that seemed as if one pebble falling would bring the whole loosely-stacked structure crumbling to the ground.Cautiously, she passed under it, using her staff to feel out the rocky ground, and before her stretched the whole ocean as far as her eyes could see. 

The arch had opened up into a small tiered village — deserted from what she could tell — with more of the same domed huts she had seen near the plateau.Only these huts weren’t build upon level ground; they were straddling the ledge of the craigs, one part tethered to the rocks and one part touching the sky.It had been a lifetime ago since Rey had seen garden creatures, but the scene reminded her of snails clinging to the stone stairs that had once led to her family’s home.She couldn’t remember what that home had looked or been like, but she did recall this one detail from the recesses of her mind. 

In the centre of the village, on the same slope she stood upon, flames crackled softly inside a giant, oval fire pit.The heat of it against her cool skin gave her goosebumps. 

She heard the shuffling of feet and the groaning of rusty hinges. She jerked her head in time to see an old iron door slamming closed on a hut a few feet from her.She approached, disturbing a small cluster of yellow and blue butterflies, and called out in the most adult voice she could muster.

“Sir Skywalker? I’m from the Uprising.Your sister, the Queen, sent me to find you and ask for your help.We need it — the _Kingdom_ needs it, desperately.”

She waited.But not even a rustling or a breath came from within the structure. Rey knew better but it was as if the hut had swallowed him whole.She lifted her staff and knocked it against the iron door three times.

“Hello?” she called again. 

Still, nothing. 

She knit her brows together and clenched her teeth.

This was not the legendary man she had expected and his refusal to even speak to her — to even acknowledge her presence — poked hotly at the insignificance she already felt. 

Had always felt. 

She hadn’t abandoned her home, fled for her life, been kidnapped by a monster, lost the first father-figure she’d had in a decade and flown across the ocean in search of some mythical hope, just to end up being ignored by a miserable, old hermit.Royal blood and reputation aside, she wouldn’t allow him to dismiss her so easily.Not after all she had been through to get to him.

She turned on her heels and marched back through the hills to where Sahar was wedged into the ground.Several of the tiny bird fae she had seen when they first arrived scattered to the wind when she grabbed the hilt of the sword and pulled the radiant blade from its earthen anchor.Continuing down the stairs back towards the Falcon, Rey slid the sword into the leather belt Queen Leia had given her. 

If Sir Luke wouldn’t listen to her, then she knew exactly who he _would_ listen to, whether he liked it or not. 

\---------------------

*Luke sat in his hut, huddled over the trunk that contained his few meagre belongings. He hadn’t realized how tense he had been holding his face until a dull ache crawled up his temples and across his brow.He rubbed at the sore places with his good hand and tried to will away the disturbance of the evening. 

It had been nearly a decade since he had interacted with anyone besides the Guardians of the island, and now some kid with a stick and a sword, bearing the commission of his sister, was barging into his exile like it was the easiest thing in the world.Like saving the Kingdom from impending doom was just another merry morning.He hadn’t even needed to open his door to know how naive she was for thinking he’d give her the time of day after just showing up on his doorstep unannounced. 

Of course, if she had, he still wouldn’t have heard her out — in fact, he would have hide entirely from view.But that was besides the point. 

Really, it was Leia’s fault.She knew better than to send some child on a mission to fetch him for war. They were twins and she knew more than anyone else in the world that if he had disappeared, it was for a good reason. Not that Leia ever listened to reason when she had her mind set. 

He sighed.Folding up his clean tunics, he placed them carefully into the trunk. 

Truth be told, he actually missed Leia quite a bit.And Han too.

A forceful knock resounded against the iron door of his hut and he rolled his eyes.Did this kid not know how to take a hint?

“Go away!” he shouted. 

A startling crash ripped through the small space and he turned in his seat just in time to see his door fly, half bent, across the hut and crush the small table on the other side. 

What in the —

An enormous silhouette took up the evening sun streaming in through the doorframe and a set of sharp teeth came barreling in at him with a snarl. The yeti’s usually friendly eyes were daggers in his hairy face. 

He let out a string of annoyed chides in his gurgling roar of a dialect and he was half-way through them that Luke realized the yeti was angry on behalf of the teenage girl who stood beside him in the door frame. 

Luke stood immediately, the shock of seeing Chewbacca making his heart race.

“Chewie! What you doing here?” he gasped. 

The yeti commanded him to pack his bags and get his backside moving.

“He said you’re coming back with us,” the girl translated, diplomatically.He understood the gesture on her part, but it still annoyed him.Obviously, she didn’t realize how long he had known Chewie.

He turned his sights on his long-time friend.

“How did you find me? This place can’t be found.”

Chewie answered him vaguely but the girl chimed in.

“Long story. We’ll tell you on The Falcon,” she interpreted.

“You know, I can understand him perfectly, thank you very much.I’ve known him longer than you’ve been alive.”Luke raised his eyebrow at the girl, who simply stared at him, and he folded his arms.Then, like a sickening jolt of lightning, their words clicked.“Wait, you said The Falcon?” 

He looked to Chewie and saw the yeti’s face falter.The girl went silent.A burning, coiling dread wrapped around his insides like a strangling serpent.“Where’s Han? Shouldn’t he be with you?”

The yeti’s soft trills told him to sit down for the news and it was then he knew his friend, his brother, was dead.

He sat, numbly, as the girl allowed Chewie to tell him what had happened without interruption.He was half aware that his hairy friend had stooped down to place a huge, comforting hand on his shoulder but everything felt distant and far away.He noticed in the briefest of clarity that the girl had shining tears hanging from the rims of her eyes.Who was she that she should feel Han’s loss?

Finally, Luke couldn’t take the chill and darkness of the hut any longer.He stood and passed by the two trespassers, making a slow, steady trudge towards the warmth of the fire pit.Suddenly, he found himself sitting on the stone semi-circle bench that ringed the fire, both Chewie and the girl sitting next to him. 

“There’s no Light left in Kylor, despite what Queen Leia believes,” the girl said.“I was kidnapped by him and I fought him with Sahar in the forest outside of the Fortress, so I know that —“

“You _fought_ him?And you won?”Luke asked, skeptical.It wasn’t like his old apprentice to pull his punches, even wounded. 

The girl nodded, looking at Luke with wide, hateful eyes.

“Yes.I left him to die there after I cut open his face.But there were reports just before I left to find the island that he survived.”

Luke shrugged. 

“Well, I guess that harpoon injury must have done more damage than I thought, if _you_ were able to beat him.”He looked at the girl for signs of a wounded ego or shame at his comment, but there was none.

“Sir, the situation is dire.The Order will have complete control of the remaining countries in a matter of months.We need the Knighthood of the Light back…we need Sir Luke the Skywalker.”The hope and naivety in her expression nearly made him run.She was so young and she knew so little.How could Leia have sent such a child on a fruitless mission?

He huffed.

“You don’t need Luke Skywalker.”

The look on her face melted into a mask of confusion and she gaped at him.

“But…I…just…”

“Though what?That I’d just come with you and face down the entire Order with a glowy-sword and some shining virtue?”He knew his tone sounded much harsher than what the poor kid deserved — than what Chewie deserved — but it didn’t matter in the end.They had to be told straight. He stood.“What did you expect would happen here?I didn’t exile myself to the most hidden island in the Kingdom for nothing.I came here to die…and take the Knighthood with me.Now, go away…both of you.”

With that, he fled to the safety of his hut and sat down in the darkness that now filled his tiny home.And to his relief,neither fae nor girl followed him. 

It didn’t take long before the memories began to well up from within him.Han’s snark and swagger the first time he and his first mentor, Obi Wan, had hired the pirate captain.The flabbergasted look on Han’s face when Leia came bursting into their lives like a hurricane.The same flabbergasted look on his face when he saw Leia on their wedding day.The brilliant smile he beamed to the whole room when he brought tiny Ben to meet his uncles. 

Luke’s subconscious smile faded at the thought of Han’s son and he felt the warmth of his own tears drip off the end of his nose.All that was left of his friend was in the monster who had murdered him. 

He should have been there for his sister.The thought of her bearing that loss on her own — of standing up and lighting the pyre without Luke there at her side — twisted a knot tight in his heart.Of course, Leia was use to doing life on her own and, if he was honest, doing it better than a whole council of people.But she wasn’t the rock she pretended to be.Though they hadn’t grown up together, he knew her as only her twin could.She loved deeply and she lost deeply.It was her true nature, despite all the airs of fire and grit she wrapped those vulnerable pieces in. 

But his absence in her moment of pain paled in comparison to the grievance he had caused her all those years ago.And nothing he did now would ever erase that mistake — not even resurrecting the power of the Knighthood.

It’s religion deserved to stay buried.

\-------------------

*Leia glared up at her best sailor with all the fire she could muster.And she knew from experience that, despite her small stature, she could render a man to the size of a mouse if she applied enough thundering authority.This particular man needed to be taken down a peg or six before he made any other hair-brained, testosterone-fuelled decisions that took more lives than were already lost. 

She swiped her palm across his face, the slap announcing his shame throughout the captain’s quarters where all the generals were congregated. 

“I’m revoking your rank, _Captain_ ,” she said through a tight jaw.He looked stunned but his dark eyes shifted to her in defiance.“How _dare_ you disobey my direct order, Poe. There were good people lost in those frigates because of your decision. I should have you thrown in the brig for treason.”

“With all due respect, my Queen, because of my decision, we were able to take out The Dreadnaut…the Order’s deadliest ship in their whole fleet, in case you forgot!Countless lives will be saved with that thing destroyed. Those soldiers are _heroes_.”His eyes were shining with glory, even as the red hand print on his cheek grew brighter.

Disgust curled up in her ribs.How many needless lives had been lost during the First Kingdom War because of her own desire for glory?How had her impetuous impulsivity damaged her men when she was young and reckless in her mission?

“ _Dead_ heroes,” she spat.She shoved a ringed finger into his leather clad chest.“Get your head out of the clouds, Flyboy, and maybe you’ll start understanding there are some things that cannot be solved by manning a lugger and blowing things up!You led your soldiers to their deaths when it wasn’t necessary to win _this_ battle and because of that, I know you aren’t ready to lead.Now, get out of my sight and find something useful to do.”

His eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth — probably to sass her against all reasonable judgement.But she was having none of his back talk today.Somedays, she wondered why she let him have such a loose leash with her in the first place. 

“I said get out of my sight, Captain.Go!”Leia glared deep into his eyes like she was ten feet tall and she watched the snark drain from his face, though his anger still burned behind clenched teeth.He swivelled on his heels and stalked out of the captain’s deck, startling everyone present when he slammed the door.Officers and generals pouring over charts and strategy maps looked up from their tasks and turned their curious gazes on Leia.

She rolled her eyes and headed for the door herself. 

“As you all were!” she snapped and bustled out onto the main deck. 

The winds were mild considering they had just used a venting boost to propel The Raddus away from their enemies.But perhaps she had simply gotten use to it after sailing on airships all her life.Soldiers and their superiors walked back and forth securing rigging and discussing cannon positions amongst other important things.Leia nodded her head in acknowledgement to the soldiers who saluted her as they passed by. 

Finally, she came to the starboard side of her airship and leaned against the smooth railing, staring down at the puffs of vapour that streamed underneath the hull.Her thoughts wandered as the sounds of the crew dimmed to the background of her mind. 

Three ships.That was all that was left of the Uprising.When the Order had attacked their base camp and they had sustained countless casualties, some of which she had known for longer than she had reigned, they had been forced to escape on the last of their warships, The Raddus being the largest.But despite their victory and escape, they now had no place to go that would shelter them from the eyes of the Order. 

Their best hope for survival rested in the hands of a teenage girl and a yeti.Leia only hoped that her brother would see reason — would understand the desperation in their mission and that she couldn’t be the Knight to lead the charge.

Rey was a rare gem.The girl had lived and survived on her own since she was a child and somehow, there was a spark of hope and wonder about her that glowed to blinding.She reminded Leia of Luke when he was younger.He’d lost everyone who mattered to him, just as Leia had, and still he’d managed not let that bitterness and anger stifle the Light within him.Rey was much the same, Leia could tell.But there was also a spot of Darkness in her that could prove to unravel the girl if she let it fester in secret. 

Leia also worried that Luke would sense that Darkness as well, and reject her before she even had a chance to show him what she was capable of becoming.After all, she had survived a battle with Kylor and that spoke volumes to her potential.But if Luke did do as she worried he would, the Kingdom would surely fall.Leia would just have to cling to the teachings of the Knighthood and trust the Sacred Magic’s flow. 

“My Queen, I come baring the report you requested,” came the voice of Lieutenant Connicks, pulling Leia out of her own head.The young solider placed a fist to her chest in salute.

“Ah, Connicks.Please tell me you have some good news,” Leia said. 

“Good and bad, I’m afraid,” she replied, avoiding the Queen’s gaze.

Leia sighed.

“Alright, let me have it.”

“The good news, Your Majesty, is that The Raddus and her companion ships have taken little damage and should hold up strong for the rest of the voyage.There were also no further loss of life reported in the infirmaries.”Connicks fiddled with her gauntlet at her side. 

“And the bad news?” Leia asked, though a part of her really didn’t want to know. 

“The supply holds were amongst the minimal damage reported and we’ve lost most of our reserve coal.We only have enough to maintain our altitude and speed for a few days, if we don’t restock.The other two ships have less, Highness.”

Connicks lifted her eyes to meet the Queen’s and fear etched their softness, though she tried to keep herself neutral and in control. 

Leia didn’t blame her.That _was_ bad news, considering most of the area near them was filled with small farming communities with little need for coal.She placed a reassuring hand on the Lieutenant’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Connicks. I wouldn’t be too concerned.So far, we seem to have lost the Order and as long as we don’t have to speed up, we should have no problem —“

A frantic bell rang out from the lookout and soldiers began yelling orders. 

An icy chill ran down Leia’s back and she scrambled up for stairs to the quarter deck, knocking people out of her way.She looked at the open sky behind themand saw the red and black sails of the Order in the distance.But something wasn’t right.She wrenched the telescope from the helmsman’s hands and peered into it. 

In the middle of the squadron, the largest airship she had ever seen flew like a shadowed death through the clouds.The figurehead was a massive silver hand clenched tightly into a fist around a black sword. 

Leia knew exactly who’s ship that was.The Dark Sovereignty — Snoke’s personal warship. 

Her hands went cold but her steel was steady inside of her.She retreated her aura and handed the telescope back to the helmsman. 

She was half-way down the stairs when Poe’s strained face appeared before her, his little fae companion rolling in a ball behind him. 

“Listen, Your Majesty, I know what you said and I really do understand that I was an idiot, but considering the circumstances, do I have permission to jump into a lugger and blow something up?”he said, his words coming out quickly.

Leia took a deep breath.

“If they get within firing range, permission granted, Captain.”She saw the eagerness light his expression and he took off down the stairs to disappear below deck. 

If they managed to survive again, she’d never hear the end of this. 


	2. A Fall from Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylor attacks his mother's fleet after a scathing conversation with his Master.

*Kylor walked the halls of The Dark Sovereignty and into the main lift with a growing sense of apprehension.It curled up under his ribcage like a cannonball about to explode. And no amount of meditation in the Darkness had been able to soothe it. 

When General Hucks and his band of guards had found Kylor amid the violence of the Morstella mountainside, he had been bleeding out in the lava and snow with almost crippled flight and no strength.They had brought him immediately aboard The Sovereignty, where Lord Snoke had managed to flee to during the attack on the Fortress.There, the dragon had been taken to their healers and soaked in a nixie pool until the magic of the waters had sealed up the injuries caused by the Sword of Light.Injuries that dragon magic was powerless against. 

Once he had healed, which had taken nearly three weeks, he had gone to his designated quarters to collect himself and dress in his new armour.But after feeling the summon of his Master upon him all morning, he could no longer avoid the Sovereign Liege’s presence. 

When the lift had taken him down to the lowest level of the airship and traipsed the narrow hall to the State Room,Lord Snoke’s cruel, humourless laughter seeped out from under the door.The red praetor guards at the entrance eyed him disdainfully, as they always did, but let him pass all the same. 

“You’ve done well, General Hucks,” came the low, rough voice of the Sovereign Liege as Kylor entered.The dark red tapestries that draped over the windows made the room look like it was bathed in blood.“Holding the rebels on a leash indeed!You are dismissed, General.”

Hucks gave a grandiose bow.

“Thank you, my Sovereign Liege,” he said with a pompousness that made Kylor sick. When he sauntered out of the room, suppressing snickers, he shot the dragon a glaring, sinister grin that raised in him the desire to break the smug ginger’s neck. 

After the General had left the State Room, Kylor was alone with his Master — or as alone as he could be with six of the Liege’s praetor guards standing at attention along the walls.He dropped to one knee, tucking his wings tightly, and leaned forward as low as possible.

Lord Snoke’s laugh made the hairs on Kylor’s arms prickle.

“Ah.There he is…my _faithful_ squire.”Though the words sounded praising, the dragon knew what his sharp tone meant.“You wonder why I always deny your requests to burn Hucks to ashes…why I let such a devious rat lead our army?Because with the right leverage, devious rats know exactly how to get what they want.” 

The Sovereign Liege rose from his throne and descended the dais to stand over Kylor. 

“Where are the Squires of Enn? They should have come back by now,” he said.

Kylor didn’t look up. “Still on mission, my Liege. Their message said they’ve run into...complications.”He’d sent them on a quest to find more information about the Heir, weeks before he’d ever met Rey. But the note his elite warriors sent him had been merely more than a sentence or two. That they needed more time.Which was a complication to say the least. 

Snoke grasped Kylor’s wing then— the one the scavenger had sliced up — and pulled it open without gentleness. The dragon forced himself not to wince when his Master ran his fingers, uncaring, over the newly healed scar in the membrane.“How are your wounds healing now?Has the Dragonslayer’s blade cost you your usefulness to me?”

He released the wing with a shove and paced around his squire, his arms clasped behind his back.The lamplight made his golden robes shimmer.

“They’re nothing,” Kylor answered after a long pause.“Consider them nothing more than a memory, my Liege.I am ready to continue serving our cause, at your command.”

Lord Snoke’s voice grew dangerous and purring.

“You and I both know the power of memories, don’t we?But then again, you’re the _mighty dragon_ , Kylor.When I first felt your aura across the Kingdom, growing stronger every day, oh!I felt what all masters dream of finding — raw, untamed power.”His Master paused in front of him and gestured widely.“And beyond that, there was something truly special.The potential of your bloodline — a new _Draver_.I thought you would be a conqueror greater than any this Kingdom has ever seen!”The look of pride and expectation faded from the Sovereign Liege’s gnarled face and he bent low over Kylor, almost whispering.“But now…now I fear that I was mistaken.”

Panic struck through Kylor so fast, he didn’t have time to try and quiet his racing heart.It thrashed against his sternum with fervour, filling his ears with the sound. 

He straightened to fully meet Lord Snoke’s poisonous glare.

“I’ve given everything I have…every thing I _am_ to the Darkness.To _you_ ,” he said, the helmet reverberating his dragon voice through the room. 

The Sovereign Liege sneered.

“Take that _ridiculous_ thing off.”His command was low and quiet, but it held a dagger at its edge.

Reluctant, Kylor reached up and unlatched his helmet.Casting his eyes to the floor, he pulled off the concave metal and held it at his side.He shook the hair from his slashed face and tried again to still his traitorous human side. 

Lord Snoke smirked as he reached out his aura and permeated Kylor’s surface thoughts. 

“Ah…there it is.There’s the problem.You have too much of your father’s _heart_ in you, Young Solo.”

Kylor held his breath.

No. He wasn’t a Solo, not anymore. He had ensured that part of him died under the Fortress.

He lifted his eyes to meet the Sovereign Liege. 

“I killed Han Solo.I did as you asked of me and when the moment came, I did not hesitate!” he spat in his human voice.He could feel the fire stoking his veins as he balled his fists.

“And look at you.The deed split your spirit to the bone!” Lord Snoke snarled. “You were weak and unfocused…unable to strangle that _human heart_!And worst of all, you were nearly slain by a girl who had never held a sword.You failed!”

It didn’t matter his loyalty.It didn’t matter his devotion.It didn’t matter that he had nearly died to rectify his mistake with the map.All that mattered to his Master was that he had failed. 

After all he had abandoned — all he had sacrificed to the dragonfire, it still wasn’t enough to win his Master’s respect and favour. _He_ wasn’t enough. 

Cold fire slithered beneath his skin and erupted through him like a gunpowder blast.He would show that gnarled husk of fodder his strength if it was the last thing he did. 

In an instant, he was on his feet and he snapped his wings open to their full span, his teeth bared at Lord Snoke. The guards went into action immediately and brandished their weapons in defence of their Liege, a challenge Kylor was gladly willing to accept.

But before he could lunge at his Master, sharp, jolting pain gripped his entire body and sent him flying against the nearest wall with a crack.The pain lingered, even as Lord Snoke ceased the bolts of Dark magic that had streamed from his hands. 

Kylor shook from the blow, his dragon nature vulnerable to the attack.Taking deep breaths, he rolled to his side and glared up at the Sovereign Liege. 

His Master turned towards his throne, his lip still curled in displeasure.

“Skywalker lives! The seed of the Knighthood lives!And as long as it does, the spark of hope still has a hold over the Kingdom.”He sat down on the throne and crossed his legs, his posture challenging.“I thought you’d be the one to snuff that hope out.But alas, you’re no Shadow Dragon.You’re just a silly child playing with illusions.Now, go and make yourself _useful_ before I deem you completely worthless.”

Lord Snoke waved a dismissing hand at Kylor’s prone form and the dragon slowly got to his feet.When he stood, he scowled at his Master with glowing eyes, his head ducked.He surveyed the room, watching the praetor guards go back to their positions.They were watching him intently, calculating his every move for a sign of insurgence. 

This was no place to unleash his anger, even if his blood sang with the fires of rage.Between Snoke’s advanced magical abilities and the elf-made armour of the guards that resisted magic, Kylor wouldn’t get far before he was brought down.The guards would still have a hard time killing him if he attacked, but his Master could cripple and end him if he so desired.If the room had been bigger, his dragon form would give him the advantage he needed to lash out, but in such a space, he would not be able to move around freely, which would hinder him in the end. 

Finally, he conceded to do nothing — yet. 

Clenching his fists so tightly that they shook with the effort, he gave a half-hearted bow, collected his helmet and strode from the State Room. 

Kylor stalked down the hall to the lift.Calmly, he entered and pulled the summoning rope. In a few seconds, the lift was rising through the belly of The Dark Sovereignty, headed for the main deck.He couldn’t wait to get out into the open air. To spread his aching wings and relieve himself of the emotions that pressed painfully in his body and made him tremble like the weak link Lord Snoke thought him to be.

The lamplight danced with the movement of the lift, casting flickering shadows against the ebony wood frame, and he looked down at his helmet, his lips pressed into a thin line. 

A silly child playing with illusions.That was all he was to the Sovereign Liege.After everything.He gave up his humanity to become what Lord Snoke had wanted him to be and for what? 

Once, he had been heralded as the heir of Draver for his deeds and skills.Pursued psychically for two decades for his power and potential.Groomed to become the next Sovereign Liege.But now, after just a few moments of failure, he was _nothing_.He had killed someone he once cared deeply for, in the goal of passing his Master’s test.And that action had led him to near ruin — just to have all his accomplishments stream through his fingers like sand. 

The loss and disappointment pressed him like an agonizing vice and the dragonfire within him bubbled.With a roar that rattled the nails in the lift, he smashed his helmet against the thick, skeletal frame over and over again, until the metal was squashed and crumpled into a misshapen, black and silver lump. 

Heaving great breaths, he stared down at the broken piece of armour and wished it was his human heart instead.

The lift came to a stop and Kylor slammed the cage door open, startling the soldiers who were nearby.He made his way to the railing that overlooked the main deck and gripped it as if he could strangle the life from it. Smoke curled up from where he grasped it.

“Prepare for the assault!” he yelled out in his dragon voice.He didn’t care how respectable he looked to them, only that they were afraid enough to obey him without question.“We attack as soon as I call our allies to battle.Be ready!”

Not a single officer or solider hesitated to put his command into motion and soon the main deck buzzed with busy military machinations as the soldiers assembled and ran frantic for their stations. 

Kylor tromped across the wooden planks to the very stern of the airship . He stood on the edge of the railing and let himself fall backwards into the embrace of the sky, calling up his dragon form as he dropped through the air. 

\-------------------

*He soared between the rocky hills far below The Sovereignty.The groves of foggy forests drifted passed him like ghosts of another world. He knew exactly what creatures lurked in this part of the Kingdom and to which of the Magix they were aligned.He sensed it tingling at the edges of his aura, and he counted on it for the coming attack.

While The Raddus was leashed by a tracking spell and vulnerable without the ability to outrun the Order’s airships, Kylor knew they had cards yet to play on the field and a number of fae supporters to call to their aid. Which would give them a fair fight until they could figure out an escape. 

But the dragon wasn’t interested in fair; he wanted _success_.And since the rest of the armada wouldn’t be joining them — at Hucks’ command — he would need all the power the Darkness could give him to accomplish his goals. 

Desperately, he tried not to think about the disgust in Lord Snoke’s eyes as he looked down at his own hulking, monstrous reflection in the languid waters of the river that cleaved the hills in twain.He tried not to think about the eyes of every person who had ever glimpsed the Darkness within him and recoiled, in fear — in revulsion. 

Snoke had been different.He’d sought and encouraged the Darkness in Kylor and he convinced him to embrace it to its fullest.To become a dragon after his uncle had tried to slaughter him for the fear of the shadows that lurked in his soul.But now, Lord Snoke looked at him as most people had done and it hollowed Kylor out.

But if he destroyed the Uprising once and for all, the Sovereign Liege could no longer consider him a failure.If he did what his grandfather could not, he would finally be worthy of his Master’s admiration.

Or so he hoped. 

With fire coursing through his blood, he let out a series of thundering roars that rattled the misty escarpments on either side of him.For a moment, the hills were silent.Then a cacophony of feral calls and curdling cries filled the air as dark, winged creatures emerged from the crags and forests in droves. 

*Wyverns, harpies, strigoi, wendigo riding dark pegasi, manticores, gargoyles and all manner of sky fae fled the cover of their roosts and took to the air.A swarm of allies surrounded him in flight and he pitched higher into the sky before banking sharply around towards the waiting battle, the fae following. 

Higher and higher he flew until he sliced through the clouds, like an arrow, and the cold condensation clung to his wings and scales as he reached open air again.Before him, the sun beat down bright upon The Sovereignty’s black hull and beyond it, the orange and white sails of the Uprising’s remaining airships.Kylor gave another roar as he rushed beneath the underbelly of the Order’s squadron and immediately his dragon ears heard the quick footsteps of the soldiers and helmsmen as they manned their vessels inside the larger ships. 

With deadly focus, the dragon kept his sights ahead on The Raddus, sensing the army that flew to battle behind him.The group of wyvern that had been summoned glided up next to Kylor and he gave the command.

“Follow my lead.Attack anything allied with the rebels.”

The wyverns let out a trilling screech as they broke off and circled back around to communicate his orders to the other fae.When they cleared the shadow of the Order’s airships, he heard the clicking of gears behind him.

The attack division was ready.

Kylor let out a final prolonged roar and a surge of beast and battalion billowed around him as the external cargo ramps were opened, releasing scores of sloops and luggers.

The wyverns and manticore flew ahead attacking the two, smaller rebel airships with fire blasts, attempting to take out their sails.The others began engaging any soldiers on the decks, lashing out with wings and claws and fangs.Militant shouting and painful screams filled Kylor’s ears as he swooped above The Raddus’ white balloon.He banked in a circle and dove to it’s underbelly to get at where their cargo holds kept the waiting horde of war vessels.He came around the starboard side of the hull and the hold ramps were just beginning to be lowered.

Perfect. 

The fire in his blood begged for release.Gauging his speed, he tucked his wings and spun his form into a barrel roll, sending a ball of inferno blasting into the side of the hull and into the cargo holds. The wood and iron split apart at the blaze’s touch and the airships inside the holds burst into explosive flames, leaving no ship undamaged. 

Kylor spread his wings again and soared high as cannons blasted under him, nearly missing by a margin.He dodged the cannons until he was high enough to be out of range.Staring down at the carnage, he now saw that the fae who had chosen the Uprising were streaming out of the airships like the smoke that billowed from their hulls.Drawing fire into his lungs, he dived for the largest group, compromised of mostly armed icari and thunderbirds.They wouldn’t even have the chance to see true battle. 

The molten jet spewed from his open jaws and the smell of burning feathers accompanied terrified, agonizing cries as his victims fell out of the sky in a mist of black smoke. 

He tipped to the left, narrowly missing a cannon whizzing passed his wing. 

A sharp jolt of pain surged through him as a lightning strike from the clouds below ripped through his body.

He dropped in the air several feet before regaining his control and a thunderbird burst from the cumulus, beak and talons ready to tear into him.Kylor rolled away from the coming assault and snapped at the creature’s wing as it overshot its mark.It cried out, blood staining the upper feathers where his teeth had found purchase.Still, wobbling in the air with its struggle to stay in flight, the thunderbird came again — this time, purple webs of sizzling static ruffling its body. 

Kylor tucked his wings and careened through the sky, but not before another jolt of lightning seized him.Letting out a roar of rage and pain, he beat at the air with all his strength and came up under the thunderbird so swiftly, it didn’t have time to maneuver away. 

Copper filled his mouth and slicked his talons and he watched, distantly, as the Light-aligned fae tumbled down through the cover of clouds to join the flow of the Sacred Magic forever. 

Cannons from the The Dark Sovereignty hurdled towards the rebel ships with sparks and smoke, and barely made their mark against the minor masts of the ventral sails.The rebels were already at the edge of the Order’s range. 

Though the squadron had a superior arsenal and larger airships, The Raddus and her sister companions were built for speed and agility.They may not be able to overpower, outrun or hide from the Order, but they could certainly play cat-and-mouse games by keeping just out of cannon fire.That tactic would only last them so long, but they were buying time for a miracle. A miracle Kylor wouldn’t allow to manifest. 

Through aerial tangles of Light fae and Dark, and arrows and bolts piercing across the sky from smaller opposing air vessels,the dragon wound and whirled his way closer to the rebel’s lead ship until he saw the bow clearly.A group of noble-looking men and women were gathered on the quarter deck, shouting orders and directing soldiers as they scattered and fought around the lower deck. 

Shrieks of beasts and humans cluttered the air like rain and wind ravaging a tin roof.Kylor looked back and noticed that the small war vessels were retreating back to The Sovereignty as the distance between the Order and Uprising grew.He let out a growl.Now was the chance.

The dragon beat at the air with the singular passion that blinded him to anything else going on around him.If he took out their leadership, the blow would be so great that the Uprising would be caught scrambling for a plan and lose precious time and organization in the process.The chaos would give the Order the upper hand to wear them down.

Drawing in a deep, fire-filled breath, Kylor closed in on his target, opened his mouth and —

*Felt an aura so strong that it halted him in the air like he had suddenly come to the end of his chain. 

The breath burned in his body but he didn’t care. 

He felt _her_.The Queen.His mother. 

Her aura radiated all around him like an embrace and his shock ran his boiling blood cold.He could see her, yards away still, but he could see her clearly.The look on her face stunned him further.

He hadn’t felt his mother’s aura since he had been sent away to train as a Knight, at least not as strongly as this.For years, he had expected to find anger and distain when he met his mother on the battlefield at last.But this — _this_ was not what he had prepared for, and that sharp, boring pain in his chest rose to push the fire from his lungs. 

There was sadness.Sadness and grief so great that he nearly drowned.Not for her husband or for her Kingdom, but for _him_.For his loss. 

And love.Strong and fierce and unrelenting. It was something he had never expected to feel from her again — not after his betrayal, not after his father. 

The worst of all the things he felt from the Queen’s aura came through so gently that he barely noticed it until it was squashing what was left of his angry, bitter soul.Strangling his cold flame of ambition and intent. And a moment — just a brief, fading moment — of the haunting regret he kept locked away floated to the surface and passed over him with a chilling kiss.

Forgiveness.For everything. Even for what he had been about to do.And it confused him more than anything else.

For how could a monster be given such absolution? 

He quelled the fire in his blood and steam rose from his nostrils. He wouldn’t do it.Not today. No matter how his dragon nature called for ash and carnage. 

From the corner of his vision, two shadows fluttered andin seconds, the quarter deck of The Raddus, along with its helm, exploded in light and screaming as scorched wooden splinters showered the open air.The wyverns banked in a wide circle around the damage and Kylor saw through the smoke and flames that not a single person who had once been standing on the deck was there any longer.All gone.

A rage that filled his whole body from snout to tail engulfed him and the fire welled in his lungs once again.As the wyverns came near, he released his burning fury upon the first, the fire so deadly that it melted the scales from it’s hide.It’s cries of pain were stifled by the flames as it fell from the sky in a blackened blaze. 

The other wyvern flew passed Kylor and snapped at him in an attempt to stave off the attack it knew was coming.But he caught the creature in his talons and bit deeply into its wing.Of course, it slashed at him with it’s hind feet, letting out a roar, but the dragon felt nothing except the pulsing of his sizzling blood.In one smooth motion, he ripped the wing from its socket and let the bloodied limb swirl down through the clouds like a maple key.

Then, he released the screeching wyvern and watched briefly as it attempted to keep flying, awkward and pathetic, before it plummeted. 

With the transgressors destroyed, he reached out his aura, frantic, but couldn’t feel her anymore.Had he been so distracted with the wyverns that he didn’t feel when she had passed?Had he missed it in his rage?Was she still falling and could he, even now, fly to retrieve her before her fate? 

His questions burned as horns sounded a retreat behind him, calling him to return to the cover of the squadron.Pulled in two, Kylor let out a thundering roar and turned back towards the Order’s airships, knowing his decision — and the uncertainty — would cost him many nights’ sleep. 


	3. Whispers and Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Queen Leia is rescued from certain death, but at a cost. Rey follows Sir Luke around the island and comes across a mystery that shocks her.

*Her eyes were full of tears as she tumbled through the clouds, faster and faster.

Pain gripped her body and panic clawed at her insides. But the sight of her son, the feel of Ben’s aura, had been enough to hope that maybe her death would mean something — would mean enough to bring him home. 

She focused on the Sacred Magic, feeling its ebb and flow as the wind rushed up under her and raised goosebumps on her skin with its icy touch. Perhaps if she shielded herself with Light, it would brace her fall and keep her alive. She knew before she even tried that a fall of that great height couldn’t be survived by magic. Still, she called up the Light and shrouded herself in it, creating a barrier that only gave her the hope of someone recognizing her body when they searched for it. If they searched for it.

If she was honest, the sensation wasn’t as terrible as her mind made it seem. The end would be mercifully quick and the journey there was thrilling. It would almost be peaceful if she could control how she was falling. There were worse ways to die.

The silvery green of the misty, forested hills grew closer and closer and she knew her end would happen in just a few moments. She wondered if this was the time her vision had spoken of all those years ago, when she had given up on being a Knight at the beckon of the Magix. The moment where her life would be exchanged for Ben’s freedom. It had to be, since this was the last few seconds of her life.

She closed her eyes and tucked her arms close to her body, placing her hands over the heart that had seen so much death and destruction it could tell tales to fill a hundred libraries. The wind howled through her ears as they popped and she held herself as relaxed as she could.

But then, she heard her name. 

Or more accurately, her title.

She opened her eyes and squinted up at an approaching shadow that rushed towards her at a speed unnatural for simple falling. As it got closer, she realized it had wings and a strike of hope slashed across her heart. He was an icari, the peaking sun glinting off the gold armour and the tawny, feathered wings. 

He reached for her but she knew he wouldn’t be able to pull her up in time. She was falling too quickly. Still, he beat his wings and tucked them, trying to gain momentum. His determined face filled her with dread. The dread that he was going to do something brave and stupid.

He was nearly to her now and she heard the songs of birds in the trees below. He extended his hand and she reached for him back.

The birds flapped and scattered around them.

In a fluid motion, he tucked his wings until they were barely visible behind him and he swung around her, using her arm as leverage. He grappled his broad frame tightly around her middle, suctioning himself to her contour like a garment. His wings enfolded them, blotting out the sunlight.

No. 

Understanding what he intended to do, to be, she focused all her strength into channelling her magic, drawing on every ounce of Light she could feel, and pushed the barrier around them both. 

It wouldn’t be enough. It had to be enough. She couldn’t take someone else with her. That wasn’t how it was supposed to be. 

Her head throbbing from concentration, she heard the first snap of tree branches under them and the icari warrior whispered “I’m sorry” before giving a loud, painful grunt.

His grip didn’t slacken nor did his wings unfurl as they were jostled and knocked around and agonizingly beaten by the branches they tumbled through.

Blood painted her vision, though she wasn’t sure who’s it was.

The air ripped from her body, snapping her bones.

They hit the ground.

The world fazed in and out. Her back burned and her legs wouldn’t respond to her commands. Her breath returned to her in the most painful gasp of her life and the salty, metallic tang of blood coated her tongue.

Her life.

She was alive. By some miracle, she lived. Not some miracle — some poor, brave icari, loyal to the Light. Perhaps he had been a miracle.

He lay under her, still. Unmoving, relaxed. His wings still folded around them but they were bent inwards at a sharp angle, slick crimson staining the feathers.

She sensed for him — for his signature. But it had disappeared as if he had never been.

Her scratched and burnt hands shook when she reached up and pushed the broken wings out of her view. They made a sickening snap and flopped open, their span spread out amongst the moss and dirt.

Leia’s head swam and the world tilted.

She blacked out.

She wakened to the sound of whinnying and knackering and the sweeping of wings. It was a dream, she thought. A dream of her falling through the sky and being embraced by an angel.

Well, not a real angel. Those didn’t exist.

Someone called her name. The warm voice was familiar but in her daze, the memory slipped through the cracks of her mind.

A figure appeared above her vision, his dark eyes widening at the sight of her. His lashes blinked back moisture — terrified and relieved all once.

“I’ve got you now, my Queen. You’re safe. Just hold on,” he said and Leia realized as soon as his face and voice matched that it was Poe. 

She sighed and let the pull of exhaustion carry her consciousness away. 

\-----------------

*The sunlight woke Rey the next morning, her shivers finally subsiding with the light. 

Sir Luke had not come out of his hut since the evening before and she had been determined to stay near to him through the night. Partly, because she wanted him to know he wasn’t on his own through the loss, and partly because she didn’t want him to slip away into the night without her knowledge.

Blinking against the flare of light that peaked across the sapphire ocean, she swung her legs over the stone bench and rubbed her cold hands together to shake loose their stiffness. She looked down at the thin blanket that had collected around her hips and felt a small swell of affection. It was one of the blankets from The Falcon’s bunks. Chewie must have come back while she slept to drape it over her. 

He had made his protests clear when she decided to sleep near Sir Luke’s hut instead of the warmth of The Falcon’s quarters. When she’d been stubborn about it, he offered to stay with her but there was no sense in them both being cold and uncomfortable for her decision. Besides, she knew that despite the Knight’s miserable disposition and inhospitality, she was in the safest spot in the whole Kingdom. 

As she wiped her eyes of sleep, she gazed down into the smoking ashes of the fire pit and immediately, a wave of nausea washed over her. It was so brief that she probably would have chalked it up to hunger pains if strange emotions hadn’t mixed with the sickness. She scrunched her face into a pensive expression and searched the ashes as if they held all the answers.

It had been a dream. A weird, dark dream that swirled with broken images and jumbled words. She couldn’t make any sense of what she had seen in her sleep but that didn’t stop her guts from twisting with the dread the memories of her dream imprinted on her. It unsettled her and the worst part was that she had no idea why. Just that something awful had happened — awful, dark and dangerous.

The groaning of hinges ripped her away from her thoughts and she turned to see Sir Luke opening the dented door of his hut. Chewie had offered to help him re-attach it before the yeti left for The Falcon’s shelter, and reluctantly, the Knight had agreed. While the door was functional, it would never be the same again. 

Sir Luke stepped out into the thin sunlight, the ocean breeze playing with his silvered hair like the caress of a mother. In the new light, she could see the strands of spun gold that his hair had once been along ago. Like in the legends.

He surveyed the jagged hillside, squinting, and when his eyes fell upon Rey, he scowled. Though, the edge in that look faltered when he turned his sight to the blanket at her waist. The Knight stalked out of the doorway and grabbed the long, rough-hewn spear that rested against his hut like a sentry. He said nothing but shot her a pointed look that said, go away, before retreating off down the slope, spear in hand.

Rey raised her brows, grabbing her staff. 

Not even a nod of acknowledgment from him. Wow. So, this was the great Sir Luke the Skywalker who had won the hearts and admiration of so many across the Kingdom in his day? So very hard to believe that such a grouchy man could have been like that, especially when he had people out there who cared for him deeply.

She shoved down the sharp blade that threatened to slice her old wounds open again. Now was no time to let herself feel that reality. She stood up, set the blanket that cascaded to the dewy ground back on the bench, and followed after him, her brows knit tightly together. 

\--------------------

*She followed Sir Luke around the island until the sun had begun it’s descent towards the horizon, splattering the surface of the ocean with brilliant, gilded flecks as the waters churned and shifted. Her legs burned with the inclination of the hills and she wondered how she’d lost the conditioning of the sand dunes so quickly. 

Rey had traced the Knight’s every path throughout the day. First, watching him over a rocky knoll as he travelled down to the ocean’s edge. There were no beaches or sandbars anywhere around the island and instead, the rocky, lichen-covered terrain tapered at its lip until it disappeared into the sapphire waters. Because of the jaggedness where the two natural forces met, cold splashes of brine sprayed up between the jutting stones. It was at this meeting point that Sir Luke had stood, spear raised high, and waited. Within a few moments, the dormant skills of the Knighthood ran through the movement of his strike, unnaturally fast and precise, and the spear wavered, point-down, in the shallows. She saw only the faint stain of red in the water as he yanked it up and a massive, silver fish twitched at the end of it. There was probably enough meat on the creature to feed him for a few days. 

After this, he cleaned his catch, carved up a piece and ate it fresh, while tying up the rest and slinging it over his shoulder. He brought it back to his hut and immediately set out again for the opposite side of the island. Rey followed a far pace behind, just enough that he could see her, but not close enough to reprimand her for it. 

He’d wound his way down to a flat plateau to the north, where her surprise grew at the sight of animals — regular animals and not fae. They looked like the goats that the nomad tribes brought to the village for selling and trading, only bigger and with long, silken hair. Some had horns that curled in on themselves like giant snail shells. Sir Luke had tended to them, with a shockingly tender affection that was so unlike what he had shown her, and he carried what he had milked from them back to his hut.

By the time midday had come, Rey realized she hadn’t eaten and the Knight had offered no food to share. So she’d trekked back through the narrow, stone corridor that led to the west side of the island, The Falcon and Chewie waiting for her. The yeti had politely listened to her frustrations as he’d pulled out the bread and cheese and dried meat from the galley’s cupboards and served them, Artu chiming in with his usual cheeky comments.

When she went back to the hut, Sir Luke was gone. She let out a curse and scanned the cliffs, hiking the slopes to any vantage point that would help her. Finally, he appeared up the path, dragging a bundle of thin drift wood and dead branches. No doubt fuel for the fire pit. When he spotted Rey perched high in the rocks, he scowled deeply and his glare was nearly tangible.

By the time the evening had begun it’s course, Sir Luke trudged up the eastern slopes and she continued to follow him, her weariness growing with the descent of the sun. While she wasn’t cold, the damp chill of the air had thoroughly soaked into her bones and weighed her down. Still, she followed, not knowing whether this was the Knight’s normal daily routine or just a routine he had taken her through to discourage her. 

He would come to learn that she wasn’t that easily swayed. Not after a decade of sand and hunger had moulded her determination and stamina.

*Sir Luke crested the hill and as Rey took a step to continue on his path, something tugged at her — not her but the magic inside of her that had been strangely quiet since her arrival. It pulled so strongly that she gasped and lowered to her knees against the hill. She put her hand over her chest, feeling her heart beating a steady rhythm. Swallowing, she looked over her shoulder to where the source of the power called her.

A hundred yards below and slightly to the north, a massive tree nestled tightly into a deep, rough gouge in the base of the main peak of the island. It bore no leaves and stood naked of bark, like a monument made of solid driftwood. A mist cloistered around it, an ancient breath from ancient lips that no longer dwelled in the realm of the living.

Rey knew she needed to go there. Felt it so profoundly that she was on her feet and scuffing her way down the slope before she realized she had moved.

As she reached the valley where the tree cleaved into the rock, she thought she heard someone speaking, soft and in a hush, like an echo or a whisper. She whipped her head around to find who the voice belonged to but saw no one. The closer she came to the tree, the more the whisper grew until it was joined by others, saying ancient words in a language she didn’t understand. The voices floated by her, like wraiths in the ocean breeze, calling and caressing a part of her that felt like it was coming home. She trembled, not out of fear but out of the strange sacredness that place held over it like a shroud of old powers.

The towering tree loomed above her now and she saw, in the centre of its broad trunk — twice the circumference of the huts in the abandoned village, a narrow archway had been carved into it like the puncture mark of a great carnivore. Beyond, a dark chamber. 

Rey stared up at the tree as she neared, its pale nakedness a beacon through the mist in the golden light. She didn’t want to think about how long it had taken to grow; how long it had been alive and how long it had been dead. When she came to the archway, the whispers ceased and the absence of them filled her to bursting.

She stepped inside.

The chamber widened out before her, taking up the full hollow of the tree trunk. The whole place looked hewn out by crude tools and smoothed by centuries of wear. No light sources could be found anywhere in the space, the evening sun the only illumination. Alcoves pushed into the wooden walls and weather-cracked shelves lined above and below them, baring thick volumes and manuscripts bound in leather and brittle twine. Inside the alcoves themselves were trinkets that Rey longed to investigate: sword hilts of varying metal and design, stone cubes etched with runes that seemed familiar, pieces of tarnished armour bearing the firebird symbol of the Knighthood. Lacquered stone daggers made of obsidian also sat in the alcoves, their edges still sharp and gleaming despite the layer of dust that had collected on their dark surfaces.

Rey released the breath she had been holding. 

This place…

A flash of hazy, sleep-laden memory crossed the front of her mind, a waking phantom from her consciousness, and she realized she had also dreamed of this chamber before.

“Rey.”

The sound of her name made her freeze, as her magic rose and buzzed through her veins. Not fear, but cold recognition.

It was the gentle, warm voice from her vision in the tavern cellar.

Slowly, she turned towards the voice.

Behind her, in the shadows, a figure appeared as transparent as a gossamer sheet. A faint blue glow surrounded him, making the curved wall behind ripple with the distorted light.

A ghost.

She should have been afraid, she knew. Yet something about him stilled her. The figure, appearing in long robes similar to the ones Sir Luke wore, lifted his gaze to her and the edges of his white beard widened with his small smile. The expression looked the same as the one Captain Han had given every time he gazed at The Falcon.

A squeezing pang shot through her guts at the thought of the sky captain and though the ghost smiled at her still, she could have sworn she saw sadness in his eyes — felt it on the air around her.

He raised an ethereal hand towards her and opened his mouth to speak —

“Who are you?”

Rey whipped her head to the entrance, startled by Sir Luke’s voice. He stood in dark silhouette against the coming sunset that poured in behind him. Remembering the ghost, she looked back to where he stood, only to find the figure gone — vanished as if he never was. She blinked the fog from her mind.

“Did you…did you see him too? That man…with the robes?” she asked, her own voice paper thin and younger than she was. She turned her attention to Sir Luke, waiting for his answer but all he did was stare and examine the spot where the figure had been, as if willing himself to see what she did. In the end, he simply shifted his weight and leaned a hand against the archway.

When he said nothing, she let her eyes wander around the dim chamber, her sight taking in every detail. 

“I know this place,” she whispered, not sure why.

Sir Luke’s voice cut through the quiet as he entered the chamber. “It was built a thousand generations ago, when the Knighthood was still a monastic sect. Built to house these —“ He walked over to one of the shelves of books and carefully slid it from its place, opening it with a delicacy that came with handling ancient things. “The original tomes of the Guild of the Light. Like me, they are the last of the Knighthood’s religion.” He ran his hand down a fragile page and then closed the tome, replacing it back on the shelf.

He lingered for a moment and then met her gaze.

“You’ve seen this place, seen this island?” he said, whether in curiosity or suspicion, Rey didn’t know.

She swept a dazed glance around the room once more, everything exactly as she had remembered. When she spoke, the quiet reverence was still in her voice. “Only in dreams.”

“Who are you?”

She snapped out of her thoughts and blinked at him. Had she forgotten to tell him?

“Rey. The Uprising sent me.”

His jaw twitched and he set sharp eyes on her. “Yes, my sister sent you. So, what’s so special about you?”

That was a question she had been asking herself since Sahar had first called to her and she hadn’t a clue how to answer it. She didn’t know if she ever would. 

Sir Luke pressed her. “Where are you from?”

A junkyard, apparently.

“Nowhere,” she replied, her tone flat.

He tilted his head, annoyance in his expression. “Nobody’s from nowhere —“

“Jakku,” she blurted.

“Ah.” He nodded his head, conceding. “Okay, that is pretty much nowhere. Well, Rey from Nowhere, why are you here?”

Again with that question? Hadn’t she already answered it more than once?

“The Uprising sent me. We need your help. The Order has become unstop —“

“Why are you here?” His tone was raised, firm, as he took a step towards her. It would have seemed menacing but there was no malice or threat in his eyes.

She realized, now, what he meant — what were her own hopes in coming to the island. Her own purpose.

“Something...sleeping inside me has always been there. But now, it’s awake and I’m…afraid. I don’t know what it is or what to do with it. I need help.” She dropped her gaze, feeling the phantom of the terror that had welled up within her the first time her magic awakened in the Fortress’ dungeon. 

While it didn’t scare her nearly as much now, there was a growing apprehension in her heart that her power was more than she realized. That there was a savage, wild part of her she couldn’t control, like when she beat the Dragon Lord in combat. 

She’d seen the awe and pain and longing in his eyes — saw them still — before she’d broken free of her magic’s grip, whispering for her to end his life. She hadn’t, thankfully. He deserved it, no doubt in her mind. But not by her hands. She wouldn’t become the monster he was.

Sir Luke must have seen the storm swirling in her because his edged gaze softened and he shrugged.

“You need a teacher,” he said. And then, as if clarifying his statement, “I can’t teach you.”

She snapped her eyes up to meet his, brows knit together and a disappointment in her belly that burned white hot. He turned from her but she wouldn’t let him close that door. She crossed the room to face him.

“Why not?” A demand. “I’ve seen what you do all day, you’re not exactly busy.”

His voice was tired, strained. Deep exhaustion etched the lines in his face. “I will never train another generation of Knights. Like I already told you, I came here to die.” Again, he walked away from her and this time, Rey didn’t pursue him. He stood in the entrance of the chamber and looked back at her, his face shadowed in silhouette. “It’s time for the Knighthood to end.”

The child within her, desperate for hope and clinging to legends, died a small bit at his words. And she knew — knew — that she would never get it back again.

“But the Knighthood has protected this Kingdom for thousands of years,” she protested, remembering those stories told to her by passing merchants. “It fell into Darkness the first time the Knighthood disappeared. Without it, what will become of the Kingdom now?”

She didn’t care how young and naive she looked. 

Sir Luke took deep breath and gave a resigned sigh. He shook his shadowed head. “That is for the Magix to decide.”

Rey grit her teeth at his answer, seeing the Queen’s face in her memory. Seeing the attempts to veil her despair when she told her that her brother refused to stand with her.

“Why?” she breathed. “The Queen sent me here with hope. If there is none, she deserves to know why.”

His sister deserved to know why.

Silence.

And then he left, not a sound from his mouth.

Rey stood in the growing dimness of the chamber, simmering misery boiling her heart. And a frustration that rubbed her raw.

Why was he still not taking her seriously? Yes, she was young. Yes, she was inexperienced when it came to Knights and dragons and destiny. She knew all of this with stark clarity. There were no illusions of her own greatness in her mind.

But whether he — or anyone — deemed her too young and too inexperienced for the adventure, Destiny and Fate had been dragging her along by the heels, regardless. And she needed Sir Luke to understand that she intended to do whatever it was the ways of the Magix wanted for her to do.

So she’d dig in, like staking herself to the dunes when a sandstorm erupted. Eventually, the storm would break and she would still be there, ready to shake off the sand and continue towards her goal. It was only a matter of time — time they didn’t have.


	4. The Bonds That Tie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sir Luke gets a guilty reminder by an old friend. Kylor discovers a magical bond that may very well change everything.

  
*Stillness of night surrounded the empty monastery, the quiet roar of waves curling into the shore cascading through the brilliant starlight. Luke peeked out through the small cut-out window of his hut and saw the scrunched form of the girl laying on the bench by the fire pit, it’s low flames nearly embers by then. 

The blanket wrapped around her was similar in style to one Han had draped over Leia’s shivering shoulders — despite her biting protests and snipping — when they had been stationed in Hoth territory during the Empire War. He almost let a chuckle escape him at the memory. 

But, like a bolt of lightning, Han’s loss twisted his insides and any happy sound died in his throat.

Soundlessly, he unlatched his door and knew exactly how to open it so that the hinges wouldn’t creak as he slipped out into the moonlight towards the vessel his late friend had once called home.

As he approached the outcropping where The Falcon made anchor, the flicker of firelight greeted his eyes, so harsh against the soothing backdrop of the night. A tall, hairy silhouette sat before it and he softened his paces so the yeti wouldn’t hear him when he boarded the airship. 

A small sadness, a nostalgia, crept over him as he climbed the rope ladder, his tan robes blowing in the ocean wind, and swung his leg over the lip of the deck. 

For such an old girl, The Falcon seemed in better shape than he’d imagined and the little amount of creaking in the boards surprised him. Chewie must’ve had help keeping her together and sturdy before they set out for the island. He imagined how proud Han had been before —

He swallowed the thought and continued up to the quarter deck where the familiar, cherry-wood helm wheel gleamed under the stars and moon. 

Many adventures and missions had been navigated behind that wheel. Some more successfully than others, but somehow, by sheer will of the Magix, Han had managed to fly them out of danger every time. He’d nearly lost The Falcon a few times in the the process, but she’d always bounce back for him. Luke had often wondered if she’d been enchanted with some sort of sentience, like the sols of the Swords of Light. 

As he looked over the helm, his eyes fell on the small chain that connected the lucky rabbit’s feet dangling from the wheel, like it always did. He reached out and let the weather worn fur tickle the palm of his left hand — the hand that remained intact. Carefully, he pulled it from it’s spot and balled it into his pocket. The girl wouldn’t appreciate it for the memory that it was and he’d give it back to Chewie before they left, anyways.

He took the better part of an hour walking through The Falcon, reliving his days spent traveling to places he’d never been with Han, Chewie and often Leia at his side. It had only been until he decided to start training new Knights, but those moments would never escape him as long as he lived.

His last stop was the captain’s quarters. The large, moonlit room had been Han’s personal quarters and navigation hall, the remnants of Leia’s touches still nailed to the walls and etched into the furniture. Luke took a seat at the cartography desk in the centre of the room and examined the rabbit’s feet.

A shrill whistle cut through the quarters and he jerked his head up to see a pair of large eyes glowing in one of the shadowed corners. Another set of tonal whistles and grunts came and this time, Luke recognized his name in the dialect. A fae no taller than his hips, waddled out of the corner, an excitement shining in his eyes.

Luke couldn’t help the grin that tugged his mouth at the sight of the pengupuff who had been his companion — and his father’s companion — for so many decades.

“Artu?” His voice sounded nearly like the boy he had been when they first met. “Artu!”

The pengupuff whistled and swayed and grunted and waddled in circles, exclaiming how glad he was to see Luke. The white and blue, bird-like fae then sternly reminded him how long he’d been gone and how much Leia had missed him — how much they all had missed him.

“Yes, I know,” he said quietly, trying not to let his guilt slip out.

The fae searched his face with a mismatched, glowing stare and let out a stream of scolding sentences that would make even the crudest pirate blush. 

“Hey, it’s a Holy Island, watch your language, mister!” His tone had been firm but not harsh. He could never be harsh with such a loyal, faithful friend.

Quietly, the fae asked a question that he dreaded answering and the look in Artudee’s eyes broke his heart. 

He sighed and shook his head, and the pengupuff deflated. He reached out and placed his hand on Artu’s head, scratching at the short feathers.

“Old friend, I wish I could make you understand…why I’m not coming back. Nothing could make me change my mind.”

Artu lowered his gaze to the floor and then, as if offering a final effort, he turned away from Luke and let a tendril of his magic stream from him in shimmering blue, forming a familiar female figure clad in a pale, hooded dress. 

Leia, the first time he’d ever seen his sister when Artu had brought her urgent message to Old Ben Kenobi — Sir Obi-Wan.

He watched the arcane projection in silence, a heavy weight on his lungs.

“Years ago, you served my father in the Separatist Wars,” Leia said. “Now, he begs you in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father’s request in person, but our airship has come under attack from the Shadow Dragon and his forces. Please meet with my father and his council in Alderaan as soon as you can, as this is our most desperate hour. Please, Sir Obi-Wan of Clan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” 

Artu withdrew his magic and the projection faded like wisps of smoke. The pengupuff looked up at Luke with feigned innocence. 

Luke furrowed his brows and twisted his half smile at the cheeky fae. Artu was a lot of things but there was one thing the hot-headed little guy wasn’t — dumb.

“That was a low blow,” he said quietly through his tightened lips. Artu shrugged and his glowing eyes stared up the Knight with piercing conviction. 

Even though he knew better, Luke wondered if Artu was somehow using his magic to influence the heaviness that smothered his soul. He’d let his friends down, he’d let his sister down, he’d let the whole Kingdom down and mostly importantly he’d let —

No. He wouldn’t think of it — wouldn’t say his name. Not now. He shoved the thought away as far as it would go, a decision pressing on him. Taking a deep breath, he scratched the pengupuff’s head again and went to the door. Before he left, he looked Artu in the eyes.

“Thank you for being such a great friend all these years…to me, to Leia, to my whole family. I’m sorry that I haven’t been that friend for you. I wish I could change things, but I can’t. Goodbye, Artu.”

The fae blinked at him and gave him a woeful sound in response that nearly broke Luke before he closed the door behind him and made his way back to the monastery.

Rey still slept as he approached the bench. She was so young and so oblivious to the world. She would be better off sailing away from this place and finding a sliver of the world where the conflict wouldn’t touch her. He batted at the intrusive reminder that he, too, had been young and oblivious when he had joined the Knighthood.

But, she had survived this far and if Leia had sent her, there must be something his sister had seen in her to warrant that commission.

Only when he stood silently over her did Rey’s senses wake her up to his presence — something she would have to work on. She gasped and stared up at him, sleep still clinging to her eyes.

“Tomorrow, at dawn,” he said, flatly. “Three lessons only. I will teach you the ways of the Knighthood…and why they need to end.” She gave him an incredulous look and, gaping slightly, nodded to him that she understood. 

The fire in the pit had long since burned to cinders and no warmth radiated from it. He began to walk back to his hut as he said, “And since you insist on staying in the monastery instead of The Falcon, you might as well sleep in one of the huts, like a smart person.”

He closed the door to his hut but he stood there for a moment, listening. When he heard footsteps, he peered out his window and watched the Girl from Nowhere plod into the hut opposite his, her staff feeling out the dark and her blanket dragging on the mossy ground.

\-------------------

*Kylor winced at the stinging in his cheek. Two will-o-wisps busily worked together to fuse the skin that hadn’t fully healed in the nixie pool. They had been at it for an hour now and his patience ran thin, regardless that he knew how extensive the injury had been. 

It impressed him, actually, just how vicious the girl had managed to wound him — how vicious and how precise. He didn’t believe in luck and the fact that she hadn’t sliced any major vessels when she slit him open was nothing short of magic. 

He let out a slow breath at her image in his mind.

Those luminous, golden, dragon eyes so filled with hatred for him burned in his memory like a brand. Beautiful and dangerous and novel in a way that made him insatiably curious. Not only had he been seeing her in his dreams, she was also something else. Something mysterious and powerful, yet completely unaware of what power she could possess.

But if she was also who he suspected she was to be, then the gravity of that fact would be far too complex and puzzling to work out with just the vague inklings he already had.

Perhaps, the Magix had been giving him visions of the Heir all his life. But that thought opened many questions he couldn’t answer. Why would he be granted these visions and to what end? And why did they bring him such comfort? 

But then, there was also no solid evidence he’d seen in Rey to entirely convince him she was, in fact, the Heir, except for her magical prowess. Though, after what he’d seen in the forest — that manifestation of dragon magic — he couldn’t be sure whether her skill and power had been partially his own doing.

Still, those eyes burned inside him, marring him deeper than her strike did.

The wisps had nearly reached the crest of his cheek when an odd sensation pulled at him, at his magic. It wasn’t like the summoning tug he felt when his Master demanded his presence. No, this felt very different, as if someone was gently pulling him close.

Annoyed at the split in his concentration, he brushed away the wisps, their dark red glow swirling around each other before vanishing into the wall.

Then, an aura washed over him, familiar but not one he recognized. Since he and the Sovereign Liege were the only Magic-Born on the ship, his senses sharpened and his wings rustled in anticipation. 

He swept a glance around his quarters, scanning every inch, and suddenly, his eyes met hers.

Hers. The scavenger. Rey.

But how?

She sat on a chair opposite him, a shaft of morning light from a porthole dancing on her face, making her irises turn to liquid honey and jade. Perspiration dotted her brow and she seemed paler than the last time he’d seen her, as if she had awoken in a panic. Though, he wasn’t sure if the panic had been him or something else.

He gaped, unwilling to move in case she would disappear.

She stared at him widely, unfazed by the sunlight, and her expression turned from surprise to alarm in an instant. He watched her fumble around for something and his entire body braced when a crossbow appeared in her hand. 

Rey aimed, gritting her teeth, and fired. Fired directly at his unarmored chest from no more than six feet away. On instinct, he flinched, preparing to feel the pain of a bolt tear through his flesh.

But the pain never came.

He looked up at her, stunned, and saw no sign of her bolt anywhere. It hadn’t hit him by some miracle and she realized it too, scowling at him.

She panted, shock turning to rage through her aura, and then she began to fade in and out until she had vanished.

He was on his feet instantly, whipping his head back and forth in search of her. Her aura had faded with her, but he could still feel it’s presence lingering, haunting the airship like an invisible wraith. He took off out of his quarters without hesitation, bashing the claw of his right wing on the doorframe as he exited.

He ignored the throbbing and chased the surge of her aura through the halls of The Sovereignty, his boots sliding on the freshly polished floors as he skidded around corners and knocked his wings into nearly everything he came in contact with.

He didn’t care. He had to find her again. Had to find out why and how she was there.

Her aura became so strong that he slid to a stop and turned in circles, looking for her blindly. That aura, of sunlight and determination, bathed him now and he knew she was there — sharing the space with him.

He turned around, his half-tucked wings creating a wind-whorl.

Finally, she stood before him, that scowl still set on her freckled face. Her fists balled tightly.

His human heart beat recklessly against his sternum and he suppressed the emotion that threatened to curve up the edges of his mouth.

She was his enemy. She was his enemy.

But the mental reminder didn’t go deeper than the surface.

Kylor scanned her clothes in the lamplight. Different from her usual desert garb. Heavier and darker, though they suited her well enough. And they smelled like the briny, damp coast.

On a hunch, he extended his hand towards her, reaching out his magic to bewitch her mind. He gently passed his palm before her. “You will bring the Skywalker to me,” he commanded.

But instead of that glassy-eyed pleasantness that came with enchantment, Rey’s scowl grew cold and hard as she crossed her arms.

“Not bloody likely,” she replied through tight lips.

Well, it was worth the try.

But how in the Seven Fires of Oblivion was this happening? He knew — could sense she wasn’t truly there in The Sovereignty, and yet there she stood, all steel and daggering ice. For all her posturing, fear still lapped at the edges of her aura. She didn’t know what was going on anymore than he did, a common thread that levelled the field between them.

He squinted at her, trying to sense for any other magical influence. “You’re not doing this. No, the effort required for that kind of spell would kill you.”

He noticed now that the rumpled edges of her clothes and the sleep-mussed tendrils of her upswept hair fluttered in a breeze that he couldn’t feel. He looked all around.

Interesting.

“Can you see my surroundings?“ he asked, ignoring the death glare she bore into him.

“You’re gonna pay for what you did!” Her teeth bared just enough that the weight of her threat was loud and clear, as if the seething anger and hatred flooding her aura wasn’t enough.

“I can’t see yours,” he continued. Then he paused, searching her eyes, darker now in the lamplight. “Just…you.” His brows quirked up as he looked — truly looked at her, through whatever magic connected them. And his heart raced.

Her sun-touched face had grown a bit fuller since the last time he had seen her, her freckled cheeks no longer so gaunt and sharp and her lips no longer chapped. Food and water — she was finally getting enough. The thought shouldn’t have brought him any sort of satisfaction, considering their enmity. But it did.

He hauled his thoughts back to the present conundrum, swallowing as he inched closer to her.

Clearly, whatever was happening, it was something he had never heard of in all his years of research and study. “This…this is something else,” he breathed. He couldn’t help the curiosity in his tone. 

He met her eyes again and she sneered, clenching her fists tighter.

“I don’t care what it is. End it. End it right now,” she spat. 

He held her stare.

Did she actually believe he had anything to do with this? That he controlled it? She thought much more highly of him than he’d expected.

But something whipped her attention away from him, panic in her eyes, and she jerked her head to look at whatever had disturbed her.

Apprehension, instead of out right fear, filled her aura and Kylor guessed at what it was.

“Luke,” he said quietly, the ghost of his uncle’s flashing eyes haunting him. He stifled a shudder as he surveyed the space around Rey, wondering if the Knight would also manifest. 

There was nothing but her.

She turned her face towards him again, panic still in her expression, and like a tide rolling back into the sea, her aura slipped away from him and faded along with her image. 

He let out a breath. The hall felt empty and hollow, even as a couple of crew members passed by him, trying not to look like they were aware of his strange behaviour. But he could feel their eyes on his back and he bristled, his back muscles contracting as he tucked his wings tighter.

They didn’t see her — or hear her. Which meant that whatever had transpired in that hall was purely between the two of them.


	5. Darkness Calls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has her first training lesson but finds something sinister reaching out for her.

*Rey stared a hole at the spot that the Dragon Lord had been and waited for him to reappear. But he didn’t. She breathed a sigh of relief as Sir Luke’s footfalls scuffed against the rocky ground.

He said, “What’s this about?” And she looked to where his eyes were fixed upon the bolt sunken deeply into the wooden doorframe of his hut.

She realized she stood on a line in the sand. On one side, the truth of what had occurred with Kylor — his strange connection to her even hundreds of miles apart — and the duty to tell her new mentor of the new threat. On the other, the fear of what that confession would mean for her and the implications it would send to Sir Luke. That perhaps she would compromise him and the entire Uprising with this blight.

Fury burned a trail through her insides. Not just because of what Kylor had done and how much she hated him for it. But because he had looked so open, so vulnerable at the sight of her — almost happy that this horrible, terrifying thing had happened between them.

Obviously the long scar she’d given him a few weeks ago hadn’t been enough to deter him, and she would gladly give him another one if it would have wiped the delight from his onyx eyes. 

Despite his attempt to enchant her, however, he seemed genuinely surprised at seeing her. A curiosity welled up along side the fury that she couldn’t explain and she scolded herself for feeling it. He was her enemy, and yet…

“I was making sure the bolts I got from The Falcon fit my crossbow properly and I set it off,” she lied. She’d sit on that line for a while and see whether it grew into something worth speaking about. Perhaps it was only a fluke and nothing else would come of it. She wouldn’t stir the sands until it was necessary. “I apologize.”

Sir Luke plucked the bolt from the frame and sighed. A chip in the ancient wood marred the surface. Rey looked back at her own hut and saw the curtain in her window torn from the attack on Kylor. 

From around the structure, a squat creature with green-brown skin, much like the landscape, appeared. Her copper eyes flashed in disapproval as she looked from the curtain to the door frame across from it. She bunched up the white apron she wore and lifted her skirts to scale the cut-out window for a closer examination of the damage, her little cream bonnet shuddering in the breeze. She grumbled something as she pulled the curtain off its hangings.

Rey didn’t understand the dialect - the sounds and tones were familiar yet they didn’t make sense. She knew the sentiment behind them though.

Sir Luke cleared his throat and when Rey looked at him, he motioned for her to follow. He led her through the narrow passage and veered to a path on the left when it forked out at the place she usually turned to go back to The Falcon. They began to scale a set of long, winding stairs carved into the rock face of the main peak.

She looked down the slope and saw a small cluster of those earth-skinned creatures huddled around a pool of trapped ocean water, washing things that Rey couldn’t make out.

“What are they?” Her question made Sir Luke halt.

“They’re brownies, the Caretakers of this island. They’ve been watching over and maintaining the monastery and its buildings since the time of the Guild, before the Knighthood was established.”

Rey stared down at the brownies as they went about their work and it reminded her of when she had to clean her wares at the watering hole along with the other scavengers before they could be sold. The memory held no warmth or fondness, she realized. 

And it sent a tendril of alarm through her — the thought that, perhaps, the place she had tried so desperately to get back to might no longer be the home she had once considered it. 

Perhaps it never had been.

She shoved down that dangerous notion before it could fracture into a thousands questions she wasn’t willing to explore. Not right now.

The Knight continue up the stairs far ahead of her and she scrambled up the inclination to catch up to him, her calves and thighs burning.

*At the top of the stair case, a stone archway opened up into a wide cavern, its hewn ceiling towering high above them. The stone walls were bare, except for ancient-looking runes carved deep into the rock. They were similar to the ones on Sahar’s blade in their form and structure. But where the Sword of Light’s inscription was etched in elegant, fine markings, these were rough and crude with nothing beautiful or dignified in how the runes had been carved. Older, so much older than the Knighthood’s language.

Despite the simple bareness of the cavern, Rey shuddered at the weight of the place. The magic hung in the space like an invisible fog, warm and bright on her skin, her soul, regardless of the overcast gloom that poured in from a second archway that led out onto a high outcropping. 

Shaking off the feeling, her eyes caught on a pool of water, glittering in the hazy light that streamed in. It was set into the stone floor itself and she stood on the lip of the pool, staring down at an image that seemed both familiar and entirely foreign.

A mosaic of coloured river-rocks peered up at her through the reflection of the water, a vague depiction of a person wearing monk’s robes — their face cold and unyielding. They held a Sword in their hands before them, pointing straight up towards the open archway beyond the pool. A line ran through the mosaic. On one side, the rocks were black as onyx and on the other, nearly white. The line in the centre streaked down the mosaic in a grey bar, separating the two sides — and yet uniting them.

She realized, then, that Sir Luke was looking at her with an impatient stare. She snapped her attention away, her curiosity, and joined him on the outcropping.

From the years of climbing up high riggings and upside down rooms, heights didn’t scare her. 

But the openness of the cliffside, with the stone balcony jutting out from the main hill like the end of a dagger, shot a small pang of danger through her. She dismissed it and walked out into the cold wind, the gloomy clouds trying desperately to hold back the sun that pushed golden fingers through the cracks in their gathering.

Her mentor was silent as he appraised her.

Not sure what she should do, she said, “Sir Luke, we need you to bring the Knighthood back.” She sighed, ignoring the long drop just a few feet to her right. “Kylor is strong in the Darkness, very strong. I’ve seen it first hand. Felt it. Without the Dragonslayers, I don’t know if we stand a chance against him and the Order.”

“What do you know about the Sacred Magic?” he said, finally — dismissing her plea.

Honestly, she had barely given it a thought, hadn’t had time to give it a thought, before she had met Finn and the whole adventure he had dragged her into. Or more like what Destiny had dragged her into.

Finn.

He’d still been recovering, unconscious, when she left for the island. The fae healers had assured her that he would be back to full strength eventually, but she still wondered if he was okay. If he would be the same Finn, the same friend, she knew when he awoke.

She swallowed and squared her shoulders, digging her staff into the stone. She pulled every scrap of what she’d heard in the legends to the front of her mind.

“It’s…it’s a power that the Knights, dark mages and dragons possess that lets them control people and — makes things float.” She knew the explanation sounded childish but other than the vague description the sage had given her in the castle cellar, it’s all she had to work with.

“Impressive,” Sir Luke said flatly. He turned to the large stone platform in the centre of the balcony. “Every word in that sentence was wrong.” He patted the flat surface and looked at her. “Lesson One: come here and sit down, legs crossed.”

Rey drew her brows together at the order but obeyed. She approached and laid her staff down beside the platform, climbing up on top of it. Once she was seated how he instructed, he continued.

“The Sacred Magic isn’t a power that you or anyone can possess. Not in ownership. It is the life-force that connects all living things in the world and gives them existence, from the natural elements to the fae to the humans. The Sacred Magic has two dual, equal sides — the Light and the Darkness. A perfect harmony for our world.”

She peered up at him. “But the fae have magic…and some parts of nature…” She was drawn back to that black fortress atop the frigid, snowy mountain. The boiling cavern under it carved with spells much like the walls here. The Captain’s body falling, falling into the molten depths.

She swallowed. “And the Knights have magic,” she finished. 

If Sir Luke could sense her thoughts, he didn’t show it. 

“Yes, but to a point. While the ancient arcana in the elements and the fae is drawn from a part of the Magix, it has granted access of its full spectrum of power to only a few. The Magic-Borns. The stronger the innate arcana of the Magic-Born, the greater their ability to access the Magix. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, but it’s not the lesson for today.”

Rey shrugged, feeling overwhelmed by the information. “Okay. But I’m still not sure what it is…the Sacred Magic.” 

She didn’t know how to explain it. The concept was simple enough but it didn’t click with what she had seen and felt. That surge of power from within her that seemed to churn and rage of its own will.

Sir Luke crouched beside the platform, holding a long, thin stick in his hand. Where he had gotten it, she had no idea.

“Here, straighten up and close your eyes,” he said.

Eager, Rey obeyed immediately, wiping her damp palms on the knees of her trousers. She hadn’t expected to feel so…nervous. So worried. In the Jakkuan desert, she didn’t have a margin for fear and anxiousness. Those things led to starvation. 

But here…this — her failure meant the fall of the entire Kingdom. Not just her own survival this time, but the survival of everyone. Yes, there were many others in the Uprising who also shouldered the burden, but not like this. 

“Now, take a deep breath and reach out.” Sir Luke’s voice was low and soothing.

Rey inhaled slowly until her lungs were near bursting and let it out. She called up all the images of Kylor and played them across the inside of her eyelids, shoving down the rage and the strange curiosity to focus on how he had wielded his magic — how he had tapped into the ancient power.

Like she had seen him do each time he used his magic, she extended her arm into the cool, blowing nothingness of the open air and held it, concentrating on the feeling chilling her fingertips. Willing that thing inside her to do something.

Smack!

The sound accompanied a sharp sting across her out-stretched hand and she yanked it back, opening her eyes to scowl at Sir Luke.

“Ow!” She shook her hand of the smarting pain and gaped. 

He must have noticed her betrayed, questioning look because he gave her a pointed look of his own. One that clearly said his instruction wasn’t literal as his brows rose to accentuate his silent, exasperated communication. 

She felt the tinge of warmth rise to her face and she softened her expression. “Reach out…you mean like…” She placed her hand to her chest, clarifying. He didn’t deviate in his expression.

She shifted in her seat and straightened up. “I’ll try again.” 

Rey closed her eyes and tipped her chin down, listening to the hollow wind whirling beneath the stone balcony.

“Relax and breathe, just breathe,” he said softly, taking her hand and placing it palm-down against the cold stone under her. “Reach out with your your feelings, the core of you. With that part inside you that’s come awake. Sense with it. Let it reach.”

She let her body settle into her spot, focusing on the subtle things around her — the salty air, the distant cry of the tiny fae birds far below, the weak vibrations that trembled in the stone under her finger tips. Then, when her thoughts had calmed, she turned her focus inward and felt for that thing inside her…her magic.

It stirred at her beckon and rose to the surface, tingling just under her skin. She imagined it expanding, growing, reaching, until she could feel it obeying her. 

She sucked in a breath and furrowed her brows.

“What do you see?” Sir Luke asked gently, as if from far away.

Floating to her in the darkness of her closed eyes, she saw the land mass jutting out of the sapphire sea like a fortress of green and grey. Everything still…so still.

“I see the island,” she said. “Like in my dreams, but…vivid, sharp.”

“What else?”

Rey pressed her hand more firmly into the stone and let her feelings flow freely around the island. Piece by piece, she allowed the layers of the image to peel away until she found its heart. The essence of the island and everything on it pressed around the edges of her magic, mingling with it. Speaking to it and dancing with it as it rolled along the rocky hills and played in the trees.

She felt the plants growing and stretching towards the sun. The bones of long-dead creatures feeding the ground in which the plants and trees drew their sustenance. She felt the joy of the tiny bird fae — Porggles, the Sacred Magic whispered to her — as they waddled and hopped along the shoreline. She also felt the heart break of the water nymphs as one of their sisters was found washed against the rocks. Their silent cries echoed through her.

“Life,” she said at last. “And the death and decay that feeds new life again.” Goosebumps raced up her arms. “I feel warmth. And cold. Peace. Violence. Light and darkness.”

“And between it all?” Sir Luke’s calming voice was barely more than a whisper.

She focused deeper. Feeling for the connections of everything she sensed. She reached out with her whole being, and there, thrumming between it all like a primordial song, a breath stirred and danced. The breath that sustained everything.

Her lips curved into a faint smile. 

“Harmony,” she whispered. And then, more loudly, “A living energy…living magic.”

“And inside you?”

She felt the thrumming of the Sacred Magic and focused on her own, what stirred inside. She realized, her smile deepening, that they were part of each other. A sapling grown from a vast tree.

She said, “That same magic…smaller but the same.”

Sir Luke paused in his guidance, as if he wanted her to linger on that feeling, that revelation.

“And here’s the lesson,” he finally said. “That magic does not belong to the Knights…to anyone. To say that if the Knighthood dies, the Light dies is vanity and a great insult to the Sacred Magic. Do you feel that now…understand it?”

*But the sound of his voice was distant, though she knew he stood directly at her side. Rey felt a brush of a shadow against her magic and she sensed more than just the island now. The image swept across her mind — a deep, black hole rimmed in seaweed sunk into the rock on the southern shore. A strong surge of the Magix rippled from it’s depths.

Her brows furrowed.

“There’s something below the island…a dark place. Powerful.”

His words were faint in her ears. “Yes, it matches the hub of Light in this temple. Balance. Powerful Light and powerful Darkness.”

Chills ran up and down her spine, raising every hair on her body, as she felt — no, heard — her name uttered in a murmur from the dark of the chasm. Drawing her magic, her attention.

“It’s cold…it’s calling me,” she whimpered, afraid to yield to the pull but so curious it made her bones ache. “I want to do go to it."

“You have to resist it, Rey,” Sir Luke said, his voice fading away with the rushing in her ears. “Rey?”

Rey.

It drew her closer to the edge. The voice in the void calling her name like a friend.

Rey.

It was male. Older. But not the voice of the man she’d seen inside the tree and heard in her vision. His voice had been gentle and soft. This one sounded regal, rough and edged with a gripping charm.

Rey.

She let her magic travel to that chasm in the shore, to peer down into it’s core and know who was calling to her.

Just when she could feel the edge of it, a shock went through her being and images, dark and thrashing, jolted through her.

A temple bathed in a hazy, sickly blue.

Lightning screaming through open pillars — an amphitheatre full of faceless, hooded figures illuminated by its violent light.

All staring at her.

With each flash of lightning, a structure flickered before her, it’s rocky spines rising from the stone around it like the rays of a dark star.

A throne.

Immediately, Rey recoiled. She recalled her magic so quickly it rushed at her like a great rolling wave crashing against the rocks.

She gasped and flung open her burning eyes, throwing her hands out before her as the force of her magic knocked her from the platform, dangerously close to the edge of the open balcony.

*Sir Luke was at her side, she realized, as his warm hand grasped her arm and hauled her away from the threat of falling. Her breaths came out in pants, her mind swirling with the images she’d been shown. She looked up at her mentor as she clung to the platform.

His eyes were wide and his skin drained of colour as he stared into her gaze, shock and fear etching his expression. He took a step back, nearly stumbling.

“What —”

“You…you have —“ His voice trembled as he spoke. “You went right into the Darkness.”

She slowed her breathing, sifting through what she had seen…what she had heard. “That place. It was trying to show me something.”

“It offered you something you needed…and you didn’t even try to stop yourself,” he said quietly, incredulously. He stared unseeing into her eyes, his own still wild, and said nothing else for a long while. Then, he tore his attention away and turned from her, heading into the dimness of the temple cavern.

As she watched him walk away, something clicked. Something she hadn’t noticed, or had even known to notice, when she arrived at the island.

“I didn’t feel you,” she said. He halted, back stiffening. Rey continued. “I’ve felt Kylor…and the Queen. I know that now. But nothing from you.” She swallowed the cold, dry lump in her throat. “You’ve closed yourself off from the Magix…of course you have.”

She realized it so suddenly that she almost laughed. 

He had a sister. A twin, if Poe was to be believed. And she had the same power he did. If anyone would have been able to find him through some magical means, it would be Queen Leia. And that was something he couldn’t afford if he wanted to disappear completely from the Kingdom. Withdrawing his magic — however that was achieved — ensured their sibling connection couldn’t be used to find him. 

Acid burned in her stomach.

She’d had a sibling once. An older brother, Kier, taken by the Order a couple years before her parents had sold her in Jakku. She barely remembered him — how he looked, how he laughed. The images lurked hazily in the back of her mind, like a dream of a dream. But she knew he was real.

How could Sir Luke reunite with his twin sister, only to abandon her and cut her off in her greatest hour of need? Rey could never imagine doing that. If she ever found her brother, she’d never let him go. Never walk away.

Sir Luke studied her and then his eyes flicked to the stone platform she clung to, where a deep crack now ran down the centre of it. One that hadn’t been there before her lesson.

Did she do that?

“I’ve seen such raw strength in someone so young only once before…in Ben Solo,” he said. His voice trembled less but shock still edged it. “It didn’t scare me enough then, but it does now.”

And then, with his retreating steps, Rey sat curled up against the cracked platform — alone, the open air playing with the escaped strands of her hair. As the wind blew against her sweat- beaded nape, a chill ran down her spine and made her shudder.

This was not how she expected things to go. And worst of all, she couldn’t tell if it had been a failure or a success.


	6. Man or Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylor has another Bond moment with Rey before witnessing what he couldn't possibly see. Sir Luke secretly checks on Rey. Rey has her second training lesson and learns the truth about Kylor -- according to her mentor.

*The evening air swept across his face and hair like an old friend, welcoming him back into its affectionate embrace. Kylor stood at the prow of The Dark Sovereignty, gazing at the Uprising’s ships ahead of them. Somehow, they had managed to still be outrunning them by mere knots out of cannon range, and he’d had a hunch how they were doing it. If he was right, they’d soon be disabled and conquered the way his Master strived to see. 

Of course, that was if they couldn’t figure out how to disrupt the shielding spell that had been cast after the Order’s initial attack on The Raddus. If the rebels’ shield went down, he would be able to take out the Uprising on his own. Bu until then, they had to find a way to ground them.

He let his eyes drift to the figurehead, a fist clenching a a sword, point-out, as if cutting through the drifting cirrus and leading the charge against the rebels. Hideous and audacious. No notes of elegant design like the airships he had grown up around. Much like the rest of the gargantuan galleon, built for intimidation and destruction. And neither of those required fine aesthetic.

Footsteps thunked and creaked against the forecastle steps. He flared his nostrils, scenting who approached. He didn’t so much as turn to greet the soldier as he went to Kylor’s side.

He stood a sword’s length away, which Kylor noted with dark amusement.

“My lord,” he said, the stomp and clang of his armoured salute clipped by the wind. “The reports about what you requested are in. It appears you’re suspicions were correct. The Uprising is using their pixies to transport bundles of coal to the main ship. Some sort of reduction spell we assume.”

A tactic that he’d heard his mother use once when he was a boy listening eagerly at his bedroom door to all the adventures of his returning parents.

An ache clenched his heart at the memory of his mother and he ignored it.

He turned his head just enough for his voice to carry. “Is that all?”

The soldier nodded. “Yes, my lord. What would you have us do?”

“Send out the falcons at sunrise and sunset,” Kylor replied. He grasped his hands behind his back. “Pixies don’t travel in the full sun unless they have to. The falcons will hunt them and the rebels’ coal supply will run short.”

He rustled his wings at the soldier’s hesitation.

“The falcons, sir? Not the amphipteres?”

Those hissing, winged serpents couldn’t hunt a creature as sophisticated as a pixie if they tried for a millennia. No, the falcons were the intelligent, silent hunters they needed. And far greater in speed and stealth than any amphiptere. 

His father’s ship hadn’t been named frivolously.

“Do you have a problem with my command?” he challenged. Calm. Aloof. No need for theatrics on someone who already reeked of anxiety.

His answer came immediately. “No, my lord. It will be done as you say.”

The soldier gave a slight, summiting bow. Kylor returned his gaze to the lavender horizon and gave a dismissing pass of his hand, returning it behind his back the moment the soldier turned to leave.

The falcons…

He pushed down the feeling that word dredged up. 

The raptors would do their duty well. And after the pixies were destroyed, the Uprising would have to rely on the little reserves he suspected they still had. Once they were out of fuel for their furnaces, they would sink to the ground hourly until their momentum was completely gone, scraping against forests and cliffs as they descended. And then…then, the Order would have victory at last, bringing with it an era of unity for the Kingdom. Something it hadn’t seen since the Empire.

The Queen was lost in battle, the last vestige of resistance against the Sovereign Liege’s rise to power and the last emblem of chaos the Kingdom clung to.

Why hadn’t he felt her pass? Why hadn’t he tried to save her?

He swallowed the traitorous questions before they could take root.

A ripple of childlike joy brushed against his aura, making his wings twitch, and the sounds of crashing waves joined the rush of the wind. The strange feeling from the morning before surrounded him and he realized the ripple was another aura.

Her aura.

And something had made her rapturously happy. But as the aura grew stronger, the joy disappeared and anger replaced it, flooded it.

He knew she stood behind him before he even turned.

“Why is the Magix connecting us, you and I?” he asked softly. If she had truly gained some of his dragon magic, then she would be able to hear his words without issue.

When he faced her, she slit him wide open with her glare, deeper and more gutting than the night they fought in the forest — when she had carved her memory into his face.

“Murderous, horrible snake!” she bit. The words reverberated through him and he clenched his jaw. She continued, “You’re too late. I’ve found Sir Skywalker and he’s training me before his return. You’ve lost!”

Not the Order. 

Him.

She gripped her staff tighter, her eyes dark in the twilight. She held him at bay with her cold stare and he wondered if she peered at his blackened soul, at his every sin etched there for her viewing.

He pulled his glance away from hers, a curious glistening catching the fading light. Was that rain flecking her closed fist? She certainly smelled like it — fresh and earthy mixed with the costal brine.

He thought about her words. They had sounded like a childish taunt, whether they struck a nerve or not.

Kylor looked down at the deck, the shadows of the figurehead stretching across the solid wooden planks. “Since you’re so close now, did he tell you what happened that night? The night his temple was destroyed?” He kept his tone casual, conversational. After all, that was what they were doing.

But Rey lifted her chin and sneered, thunder crashing in her narrowed glower.

“I know everything I need to know about you.” Her words still came out with that immature tone. A spiteful wall to keep him out.

Curious, he dared a step forward, slow and deliberate, holding her stare from under his brows. He saw her body go rigid, as if she were about to bolt. But to her credit, she stood her ground.

Another slow step forward.

Still, she did not retreat. Though, he felt a rush of worry in her aura. Her heartbeat sped up.

“You do?” His question came softly. He searched her face and sifted through all the emotions swirling in her aura. Until he found it — doubt. “Ah…you do.” He couldn’t hide the edge of amusement in his low tone. 

She knew nothing about him. Nothing outside of what fit the narrative she’d painted about him in her head. And probably would have believed anything the rebels…and his uncle told her.

To be fair, they didn’t exact start off well.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she whispered. 

Because in truth, he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. Couldn’t tear them away.

He took another step.

“You have that look in your eyes…from that night in the forest. When you called me a monster.”

She squared her shoulders and swallowed.

“You are a monster,” she said, cold gaze piercing him through.

From the tension in her posture, she clearly expected him to argue with her. To counter her insult. She braced for a beastly outburst that wouldn’t come.

He flared his wings casually, just enough to make his point, and let the burning dragon’s gaze slip into his eyes. “Yes, I am,” he said.

She tucked her chin and furrowed her brows at his statement, taken aback. Though he felt her surprise, he took no satisfaction in taking the sting out of her current weapon. He knew he was a monster — a beast most reviled even amongst his own soldiers. Just a pretty shell to house the dragon he had been for so long. And that’s all she would ever see him as. He should have been curious to understand why that bothered him so. But deep down in his beating human heart, fragile and pathetic, he already knew. And nothing had ever made him feel so strong and so helpless in all his life.

The calculating expression on her face, now darkening with twilit shadows from the airship, lingered in his mind even after her aura began to fade and the sounds of crashing waves had ceased when she disappeared from the spot before him. 

He sighed, tucking in his wings, not moving his eyes from where she had stood. The fire in his blood was oddly quiet but he ignored the notice. 

A cold tingle cascaded down his face, catching his attention. He swiped at the sensation, and a single, delicate droplet of water pooled in his gloved hand.

Rain water. Had that come through their connection? And if that could come through, then perhaps —

Quickly and savagely, he shoved away the thought and cast off the moisture in the same manner.

He was a monster and they both knew it.

Kylor turned back to the figurehead, intending on going for a flight in the soothing night air, and every muscle instantly froze.

A man leaned against the prow’s railing. Tall and robed, a shaggy head of light hair falling around his face. A scar across his cheek, like Kylor now had. And he could see directly through the blue translucence of the stranger’s body like a…

Ghost.

Kylor blinked and the man vanished. No trace of his incorporeal form. He darted glances and whirled around the deck but there was nothing. 

It was impossible, he knew. It had to be a trick. Dragons and patrons of the Darkness weren’t able to see ghosts, for they were manifestations of the Light, barred from Darkened eyes by the chasm between the Magix. 

And yet.

Shaking off the heaviness of the evening’s encounters, he descended to the main deck and took the lift down to his quarters.

\-------------------

*Luke crested the hill that led down towards the old training circle. He had heard Rey shuffle from her hut that morning and quietly followed her to the northeast of the island. He didn’t need to be connected to the Magix to know where she intended to go. The training circle had been one of the places she’d spotted when she stalked him throughout Ahch-To that first day. 

And since she was a former scavenger, the inactivity must have been eating her alive. She hadn’t told him outright about her past, but little employment waited for an orphaned teenager in Jakku outside of indentured servitude, looting ship carcasses like carrion to stay sheltered and fed. He knew this from his own time traveling through the area, but also because in another desert territory on the other side of the Kingdom, he had grown up a simple goat farmer with slavery in every corner he looked, including his own bloodline. 

Despite her willingness to be patient with him, her restless spirit thrummed so brightly within her that any ordinary person could feel it a mile away. Bored. Worried. Though he couldn’t blame her. His own eager heart had been far worse when he was her age. 

He knew where he would go in her position and he took his time padding down the hill that overlooked the training circle.

There, he saw her, just as he expected. 

She stood to the left side of the circle before a great rock formation, one that had risen up over the millennia to break the circle’s cracked, stone enclosure. She swung her staff in whirling arcs with an ease and precision that told him she’d been wielding it for a number of years. Her stance and form were good but she leaned a little too heavily on her right foot when parrying and striking. It wouldn’t cost her a fight but she’d be less balanced during attacks.

Balance.

Thinking about what had happened during that first lesson two days ago made him shudder. 

The split platform. The fog that had burst from her back to form the grey shadow of wings. The golden, serpentine glow of her eyes when she yanked herself free of the Darkness’ pull.

Dragon magic. And yet not entirely. If she had sold her soul like that, she wouldn’t still be the very human person she was. 

Despite the jarring discovery, she was right, though. He had withdrawn his aura entirely and closed his soul to the Magix. If he hadn’t, he might have felt the dragon magic within her from the start — would have tried harder to send her packing and find some way to exile himself elsewhere. 

But she was here now. And Leia had sent her, regardless of the dragon magic that hid inside her. He knew his sister wasn’t stupid or naive. She would have known what power Rey possessed and sent her anyway. He wondered if somehow it was her way of getting him back for Ben. Or if it was some cosmic joke the Magix were playing on him. Either way, it had done its job well. 

He watched in silence as the determined girl in the training circle laid aside her staff and picked up Sahar from the ground behind her. She examined it, as if still in awe, when it lit up at her touch. Then, she began going through the same motions she had with her staff, modifying the moves to fit a sword. She was a bit sloppy and careless with her technique, obvious that her usual weapon was not a blade. But she had the right idea.

She then paused, turning Sahar’s hilt in her grasp until the blue blade pointed backwards. And acid burned in his stomach as she went through attack moves she couldn’t possibly have known. Familiar moves that haunted his memories.

She used Ben’s fighting technique. 

Whether she knew that’s what is was or not, he had no idea. But she used it, regardless, as if somehow her dragon magic was connected to Kylor. 

She had mentioned she fought him before coming to the island. Luke had never asked the details of the battle or how she managed to be in his path, but now, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what had happened — how she had gained a piece of the dragon without making the bargain.

Did she even know about it? She seemed so shocked by what happened at the temple that he wondered now if she truly had no clue what she was.

Perhaps, it was better for everyone if she didn’t know. Perhaps, the harmony of the Magix would be enough to tip the scales away from the depths of the Darkness.

Luke took a deep breath of the salty air and turned away from the training circle. He couldn’t stand being reminded of his nephew any longer. 

He wouldn’t make the same mistakes a second time.

\------------------

*The climb up to the temple was easer this time around. Sir Luke hadn’t approached her about another lesson in five days and in that time, she had done everything in her ability to hone her physical energy into something that wasn’t sitting in her hut and counting the mortared stones in the ceiling. 

And thinking about things she didn’t want to think about.

She went running up and down the slopes. Did staff and sword drills. Lifted buckets of stray building stones. Climbed up the main peak with her bare hands.

She even offered to help the Caretakers do their usual tasks around the island but they quickly shooed her away as if she might catch everything on fire.

A great relief washed over her when the aging Knight finally told her when her next lesson would be. And though it was at an odd time, she didn’t complain. 

As she drew nearer and nearer to the temple’s entrance, she couldn’t keep her thoughts from straying where she had tried so hard not to let them go. Even now, she strained against the tug.

She hadn’t seen Kylor since the night of her first lesson when everything had nearly fallen apart. And though it had been five days, she couldn’t get their conversation out of her head. Couldn’t get his eyes out her head.

For the first time since she had left the Queen’s encampment, she had felt someone else’s emotions other than her own — Kylor’s. And while she didn’t understand why she could feel other people’s emotions, she knew they been his by the electric undercurrent that flowed beneath them. Rey had been avoiding what she had felt from him then — what she had seen in his eyes just before he let his dragon’s gaze fall on her.

Hatred and rage had permeated the cloud of emotions around him when he confirmed his own abominable nature and it shocked her. Not just because she had expected him to deny it, but because she realized by the hollowness in his stare that those feelings had been towards himself, as if he had been built upon and filled up with the hope those words weren’t true.

She gave a sharp sigh as she shook the thoughts from her mind. Thinking about her greatest enemy was not what she needed to be doing right now. 

Rey stepped into the temple’s cavern, the cold wind whistling through it like ethereal voices. At the far end of the space, sitting on the rim of the mosaic pool, Sir Luke beckoned her to come where he sat.

He didn’t look at her as he spoke.

“Lesson two. Now that the Knights are nearly extinct, they are romanticized and deified. Heroes and legends that upheld the harmony in the Kingdom.” He passed his open palm through the air as if showing her a banner. He gave her a sidelong glance and she braved a small smile. “But when you strip away the myth and look closely at their actions and deeds, the true legacy of the Knighthood is failure, hypocrisy and hubris.”

Rey shifted in her seat to fully look at her mentor, brows furrowed.

How could he say that?

“That’s not true,” she countered. It couldn’t be. The Knights had kept the peace in the Kingdom for generations, according to all the stories she had ever heard.

“It is,” he said, a bitter bite to his words. “At the very height of their power, they allowed Lord Sidious — the Emperor -- to rise, create the Empire and wipe out all but a handful of them.” Sir Luke’s eyes were the ocean during a storm. “And it was a Master Knight, Sir Obi-Wan of Clan Kenobi, who was responsible for the training and eventual creation of Draver…my father.”

Sir Kenobi? The Knight her father told her stories about? She hadn’t known he was involved in Draver’s binding.

The contempt and hurt in her mentor’s expression brought her back to the cavern. She shuffled closer to him and reached out a hesitant hand to touch his arm, unsure if he would brush her off.

To her relief, he didn’t.

“And it was a Knight who saved him,” she said softly, encouraging. “I remember that part of the legend too, you know. Most people leave it out, but I don’t. The most hated creature in the whole Kingdom and yet you saw the conflict inside him…believed that the man inside the monster wasn’t gone. That he could be turned back to the Light. You dropped your Sword and refused to fight him back.”

Sir Luke stared at the ground, seeing whatever memories haunted him.

“And I became a legend. For a while that legend was true, I suppose. There was harmony in the Magix for a few years. But then, I saw Ben — my nephew — with the Skywalker bloodline so strong in him. In my pride, I thought I could train him to temper that power…to pass on my strengths and discipline.” 

He shook his head and turned his attention to Rey, the smallest glint of humour in his eyes that died as he spoke. 

“Han was his usual self about it but Leia…Leia trusted me with her son. To help him hone his magic into something that wasn’t destructive. To make him a good man. So, I took him and a group of other Magic-Born and started my own training temple.” At this, he let Rey’s hand slide off his arm as he stood up and paced. 

This was beginning to feel more like a confession than a lesson.

“By the time I realized I was no match for the Darkness that was rising in him, it was too late.”

“What happened?” Her voice seemed so young as it reverberated in such a large space. This is what she had longed to know ever since Kylor had mentioned it a few days ago. That question had nagged at the back of her mind, curiosity clawing at her thoughts, and she didn’t have the guts to ask it until now.

He turned away from her.

“I went to confront him…to find out where his loyalties rested. And he turned on me. Attacked me and collapsed his own cabin down upon us. He must have thought I was dead because when I came to and pulled myself out of the rubble, the temple…was burning. Ben — or the creature that Ben became that night — had vanished along with a handful of my students. He slaughtered the rest and left them for me to bury.” Her mentor’s shoulders slumped, the weight of the past grief laying heavily on him.

Rey remembered the vision in Maz’s tavern. A structure blazing through the night. Bodies laying still and silent across the field. It must have been Sir Luke’s silhouette watching his temple go up in smoke.

She swallowed, her words coming out like a whisper.

“I’m so sorry…”

“Leia blamed Snoke’s manipulation, you know. But…it was me. I failed. All because I was Sir Luke the Skywalker, Master Knight…a legend.”

The bite in his words reminded her of the Dragon Lord.

“Yes, I am.”

She pushed away the similarity.

What could she say to help him realize how desperately he was needed? What words would make him understand the hope he brought to the Kingdom…to her?

Her voice trembled. “The Kingdom may need a legend. And I need somebody to…show me my place…in all this. If you can’t, then I’m scared no one can.” 

When her mentor didn’t respond, she stood and walked to his side. How could Kylor betray his own uncle? He truly was a snake. “For the record, you didn’t fail Kylor. Kylor failed you. But I won’t.”

Rey caught his glance and stared hard into him. Willing him to see how sincere and determined she was to see this mission —- to see the Kingdom — through. Destiny had ripped her from where she’d been planted and had taken her here, to Sir Luke’s door step. She hadn’t had anyone else besides herself to trust in and learn from in many years and wasn’t about to walk away from those who had given her a chance to be something.

As Sir Luke turned from her and left the temple in silence, she hoped he knew where her loyalties lie.


	7. Know Thy Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey wakes up to unexpected visitor. Sir Luke gives her the final training lesson and she learns the hard truth about her mentor's intensions.

*Lightning screaming in flashes.

A faceless crowd staring in expectation.

The sinister throne looming up and up and up before her like an impassible mountain.

No escape. No way out. Fate was calling, pulling, drawing her closer and closer like an iron fist around her body.

Paralyzed. Helpless. Trapped.

Darkness blotting out her breath. Choking her. Suffocating.

A light in the corner of her vision, growing and growing. A blue line dancing and arcing through the fog, chasing away everything holding her captive. A lifeline.

Then total darkness.

Rey.

She flung herself out of her thatched cot with a gasp that broke the stillness of the night. Sweat dripped down her hairline, tickling her back, neck and face as she panted. Her eyes darted through the dim hut, blue in the moonlight, looking for signs of the terrors that had forced her awake. Looking for the source of the voice.

But she saw only the sleepy items of her room, resting exactly where she left them before she blew out her lamp a few hours ago. Sighing in relief, she wiped the perspiration from her face and the memory of her nightmare along with it. 

The third one in the ten days she’d been on the island. She’d always had nightmares in Jakku but these were different. Vivid, clawing, real. Too real.

She couldn’t tell if the nightmares were part of the vision she’d seen during her first lesson or whether her vision had haunted her dreaming somehow. Either way, she hated it. She wanted peaceful, sound rest without the fear and panic of bad dreams.

She couldn’t tell what time it was but she knew it was hours still until dawn. And she wasn’t sure she could face sleep again — face that awful throne and faceless crowd. She fumbled for the lamp on the ground beside her bed and lit it, placing it next to her. Once the room was illuminated, she curled up on her cot, knees to her chest, and leaned against the wall, watching shadows wriggle across the room. The chill of the night seeped in through the curtains and under the door and she pulled her blanket over herself to keep the cold at bay, frowning down at the winking embers in the small hearth that had allowed such an intrusion.

Her heart still raced from the shock of her dream and she tried to decipher what it meant. But all she could think about was the glowing light that had come to pull her out of that place, wherever it was. Was it Sir Luke? Perhaps the Magix was showing her another vision and an encouragement that she was on the right track to bring the Knight back home to face the Order.

That glowing light….

A presence brushed her senses, the ones that were beyond her physical self, and she bristled at its familiarity. The crackling energy, the strength, the sadness. It filled up the room until he appeared at the opposite side of her hut, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall like her. His head tilted back and his wings sagged as if he was exhausted. His dark eyes stared up at the hole in the ceiling that let the smoke of the fire escape into the night. He wore a simple, black tunic, buttoned high around his throat, his pale hands bare.

It was the first time she had seen them ungloved and she saw they were tipped in short, shining talons.

Rey pulled the blanket up higher, covering her short, thin tunic, and grimaced at him. He didn’t look at her.

“What are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”

“I don’t know.”

“Then go away,” she hissed. Still, Kylor did not look her way.

“I can’t. I don’t have control over…whatever this is,” he said quietly, laboured as if weighed down. This was not the Kylor she had always seen. Tonight, he was different, muted and troubled in a way that she hadn’t thought was possible of a monster. 

She opened her mouth to contradict him, to argue that he certainly did control it. But she remembered that each time they had been connected by the Magix, he seemed as surprised and curious as she had been. Perhaps he told the truth. Perhaps he lied to her face to keep their connection going.

She sighed, resigned to endure his presence for however long it took for their connection to fade. He didn’t move from his place on the floor and she let her blanket lower around her.

When the silence stretched on to an unbearable length, Rey scrambled for something to say.

“Why is it that I can feel you? Your emotions? And the Queen’s emotions?”

He winced at the mention of Queen Leia and his sadness surged before his emotions pulled away from her. Not entirely but just enough that all she could feel now was his signature energy.

“You’re feeling auras. All Magic-Born have them. They’re specific to each person,” he said.

“Then, I have an aura too?”

“Yes…” Finally, he lifted his head and looked at her, studying her face with such soft intensity that she fought the discomfort rising in her blood. “You do.”

“And you can feel all my emotions as well?” A panic swept over her at the realization that he had been able to read everything she had felt while they were near each other. She tried to suppress it, knowing that, too, would be felt through her aura.

If he sensed her worry, he didn’t show it.

“Yes, I can.” 

Rey felt exposed in a way that she hated. Anxiety gripped her and her heart raced. “Then, you know I hate you,” she shot, intending to wound.

He said nothing, continuing to stare at her.

She swallowed. “How do I control it…the aura? How do I pull it back?”

He took a deep breath and leaned his head against the wall again, his gaze fixed on the ceiling.

“Concentrate on those emotions you want to hide. Image them being tugged back and throw a cloak over them.”

Rey hadn’t expected him to answer her, considering the advantage he had over her inexperience with magic. But she did as he said and imagined drawing what she felt into herself, draping it in a linen cloth like the ones she had used to drape over her face during high winds in the desert. She wouldn’t know if it worked or not, but she refused to ask the Dragon Lord to confirm it.

When he still didn’t disappear, she shifted in her spot, sitting cross-legged. “Why are you awake so late? Or do dragons even sleep?”

“We sleep,” he said. “I could ask the same about you.”

She resisted telling him. She truly did. But something inside her felt safe — safe? — telling him about what kept her up at night. And the dreams were so upsetting to her that she couldn’t keep them a secret any longer. If anyone would understand haunting darkness, it would be a dragon.

“Nightmares. I’ve always had them but now…they’re darker, more real. They shake me and I can’t sleep.”

He didn’t move his eyes from the ceiling. 

“Me too,” was all he said. And for the briefest of moments, she thought she felt a small tendril of relief wash through his aura. 

The edges of his form began fading in the dim light, his aura rolling back to wherever he really was. Just before he disappeared, he looked in her eyes and the depth of that look pierced her through. Not hatred nor anger. But something else that she couldn’t put words to. 

Whatever it was, it left a mark.

When Kylor’s presence evaporated from the hut, Rey suddenly felt the weight of exhaustion pressing on her body, her eyelids. She had focused so hard on being guarded that she hadn’t realized how tired she was. Despite the fear of another dream, she slid down into her bed and blew out the lamp.

\-------------------

*Two days passed without hearing from Sir Luke and Rey’s legs and arms ached to be doing something productive. A light, cold spray of rain had kept her indoors for most of the day and as the late afternoon drew near, she decided to brave the wet weather, if meant she could stretch her legs. She strapped Sahar securely to her belt and her cloak tightly wrapped around her form.

Going up in short, quick bursts, she scaled the many, winding stairs to the Guild temple, being mindful of the slippery stone as she went. She took deep, invigorating breaths when she reached the top and strolled inside the cavern. She walked to the centre of the space and dropped her damp cloak on the rock floor. 

Until the sun hung low in the sky, she practiced staff and sword techniques, though she knew that her sword skills would be much better if someone would only teach her the proper methods. But since Sir Luke seemed not to care at all about whether she used a sword properly or not, she’d just have to make due with adapting what she already knew of combat.

It frustrated her that she couldn’t get the moves right and she wondered how she had managed to fight Kylor in the forest with even less familiarity. It must have been pure survival instinct mixed with her awakening magic. It had helped that he’d been on death’s door when they fought, which had been foolish on his part despite being a dragon. She didn’t know how he had survived with such wounds but there was no point in dwelling too long on that.

The warmth of her exercises kept the chill from her body and she retired Sahar on the pool’s ledge, it’s light going out the moment she released it.

The cavern was so quiet. Just the sounds of her panting echoed through the chamber. Sweat shone on the uncovered skin of her shoulders and chest and she needed to cool down. Rey glanced behind her and saw the stone balcony, the cracked platform resting silently as if waiting for her return. She shuffled her tired legs towards it and climbed on top, situating herself cross-legged like Sir Luke had taught her.

The misting drizzle had subsided and the clouds were rolling back to open up the blue sky, now melting from violet to pink to orange over the horizon as the sun sank lower. The tiny ripples across the sea caught the sun’s light like gilded flecks sprinkled over the water.

Despite her frustration and fear and loneliness, this island was truly a beautiful, peaceful place. A place her sand-washed soul could get used to if the circumstances weren’t so dire.

She closed her eyes and touched her palm to the wet, chilled stone, the sensation relieving her over-heated skin. She remembered what she had done that first lesson with her mentor and this time, reaching out with her magic came easier. She felt all the same things she had felt before, including the Darkness pouring from that hole in the stone shore. She steered away from it, not wanting to see that throne again or hear that rumbling voice.

This time, she tried to extend her senses further. She scrunched her brow and pushed her magic beyond the island out into the sea beyond. For a few moments, there was nothing but water and the creatures that lived below it. Then, she saw another island…and another. A scattered chain of islands smaller than this one — Ahch-To, Sir Luke had called it — existed no more than few miles south from them. 

She attempted to push her magic further but though she strained, it was as if a natural tether held her back, like she had come to the very end of her ability to reach. Satisfied with her limits, she pulled back until her senses had once again settled over Ahch-To. She opened her eyes to see if she could hold her concentration and though it wavered, she could still feel the island around her like the entire place moved and breathed under her fingertips.

Well, she could figure out how to sense things. But what else could she do?

Feeling daring, Rey looked around the platform and the balcony for something small and solid. She almost gave up her mission when she spotted it: a flat chip of stone wedged in-between the crack in the platform. With the precision of a scavenger, she plucked it out of the crevice and placed it in her open palm, where it fit perfectly. Closing her eyes again, she reached out with her magic to sense the rock, its shape and texture and strength. Once her magic had surrounded it, she thought the simple command “rise”. She didn’t know why she had thought it would work. Just a silly instinct that maybe that was how it was done. But the rock shard didn’t move from her palm.

She gave a sigh and tried again, focusing harder on controlling her magic wrapped around it. An image danced in her mind, an image where ethereal hands gently encompassed the rock and lifted it. She concentrated on that image, forming her invisible energy into that shape. Once she held it, she moved the stone, like the picture in her head. 

Suddenly, she couldn’t feel the weight of it in her palm anymore. She peaked open one eye, afraid looking at the stone would ruin the experiment. But there, hovering a little wobbly above her hand, the rock floated. Rey released the tension in her shoulders and back as she opened both eyes and stared at the skill she had learned. 

It wasn’t perfect. It wavered and shook like the Porggles that rested on the ocean waves in the afternoons. But it didn’t drop. She lifted it higher into the air and it obeyed, slowly.

She couldn’t contain the grin that swept over her face. It seemed childish to her that she should be so excited over a simple magic skill, but two months ago, Rey couldn’t have fathomed that she possessed magic, let alone that she was capable of beating a Dragon Lord and lifting rocks at will. Such a simple thing that carried so much weight in the heart of an abandoned scavenger girl. She’d had something within her all along that that was worth more than any parts and treasures she could have ever found in the Jakku desert.

A shadow rose up at the corner of her vision and she started, the stone dropping to the platform and clack-clacking down to the balcony. She turned, her heart arrested, to find an amused Sir Luke at her side.

She released a breath.

“It’s just me, don’t worry. No one else except Leia knows where we are so you’re safe.”

She thought for a flash of a moment whether to inform Luke about Kylor, but she instantly decided against it.

Panting to control her heart rate, Rey shuffled around to face him. “You startled me, that’s all. I wasn’t worried.” She puffed out her chest and tilted her chin.

His patronly eyebrow-raise deflated her. “I saw you got that rock into the air.” He pointed with his chin at the stone she’d dropped. “That’s pretty good for not really knowing what you’re doing. And you didn’t even need me to teach you.”

Rey straightened. “That’s not true. I figured it out, yes. But…I would have figured it out faster if you’d just teach me how to use my magic. I’m willing to do the work and…not repeat my mistakes.” The dark hole in the shore flashed across her mind. The lightning, the voice. She shivered. “But I won’t know what mistakes I’m making if you don’t show me the proper ways. I need you.”

Sir Luke considered her words and hiked a hip beside her onto the platform. “You know that Leia could have taught you herself? She had the training. From me, in fact.”

Rey gaped. “What? The Queen was a Knight?”

“Well, not entirely, but in most ways, yes. She had almost completed her training when — she decided to pursue a different path. Politics instead of religion. It made sense. My father had been a Knight and my mother a queen, the best in both their paths. It’s fitting, I think, that their children each chose to follow them.” 

The wistfulness in Sir Luke’s tone was something Rey had never heard from him before and it made him sound younger, lighter, than the wounded, miserable monk she’d come to know. She could almost imagine him back in his day when his valiance had been heralded across the Kingdom and his deeds wiping the Empire’s mark from the world.

But his demeanour changed in a heartbeat and his brows settled down low over his eyes. “The only reason why she sent you here to train is because she wanted me to remember the old times and feel the responsibility of the Kingdom shining in your eyes. But she was wrong. I —“

A loud horn blast interrupted him and Rey looked out to the south-west towards the origin of the sound.

There, she saw small coracles dotting the twilight waters like drifting leaves in a pond. Torches lit up the line of boats as they headed towards the thin peninsula that stretched out like an arm from the island’s bulk, where the Caretakers’ village resided in it’s craggy peaks. 

Another horn blast resounded through the evening air.

“What’s going on? Who are they?” Rey asked, unfolding from her perch on the platform.

Sir Luke was aloof when he spoke. “That’s the tribe from the neighbouring island, Pahk-To. They come here once a month to raid and pillage the Caretakers’ village.”

A sick feeling dropped into Rey’s guts and her heart sputtered. The brownies might not have taken a liking to her, but they didn’t deserve to have their peaceful homes filled with violence and destruction.

It wouldn’t happen. Not while she was there.

*“We’ve got to stop them!” Rey slid off the platform and rushed towards the mosaic pool for her weapons. “Come on! We can get there before they go too far, if we hurry.”

She turned to hand Sahar to Sir Luke but he wasn’t behind her. He was planted on the edge of the platform, staring out at the raiders boats. The dark orange glow of the sun behind him lit the golden strands in his grey-brown hair.

“Sir Skywalker?”

“Do you know what a true Knight would do here?” he asked, not moving his gaze from the far horizon. Rey took three hastened steps to where he stood, waiting for his answer. The bitterness in his voice poisoned any gentleness it once had. “Nothing.”

Rey crinkled her brow in confusion. Why was he choosing to be his usual curmudgeon self right now of all times? Did he really think he was teaching her something with that statement? Surely, the Knights would not let innocent people die.

“This is not a lesson!” she said, exasperated. “It’s not some game to prove a point. They’re going to get hurt and we need to help them.” She reached out to take hold of his wooden hand but he turned to her so suddenly, she snapped her hand back.

“If you meet that raiding party with force, they’ll just be back again next month in greater numbers and in greater force. Are you going to be here next month?” 

Rey scowled. “We can’t just sit by and do nothing!” She turned from him and stared down at the approaching boats, acid scorching her throat. 

Sir Luke walked to the edge and stood next to her. “That burn inside you…that anger…the philosophies of the Knighthood would tell you to ignore that. To only act when you can maintain balance. Even if people get hurt.”

His words were gunpowder into the fire that raged through her. Her eyes burned and her shoulders throbbed. If he wasn’t going to help those creatures, then she’d do it alone. She had to try.

Rey dashed away from the edge of the balcony and scooped up Sahar without stopping. In a moment, she raced down the temple stairs, abandoning them for the painful slide down the slope when they slowed her down.

“Rey! Wait!” she heard echoing in the cavern above her. But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t. Innocent lives were at risk and she wasn’t going to wait around for an old man to grant his permission to help them. By then it would be too late.

When she finally got to level ground, she ignored the bruises and scrapes down her forearms and legs and broke into a full run across the stone shoreline. All she could imagine were hurt brownies crying out for aid and she pushed herself harder than she ever had. To her surprise, she found her legs carrying her faster than she thought possible for a human to run. It almost felt like she was flying.

Smoke billowed up from the centre of the village and shouts escaped into the night, driving any thoughts of wonder from her mind and replacing it with steely determination. 

With her breaths ragged and her pulse drumming into her ears, Rey made her way to the village’s main gate, constructed of large, long rib bones and driftwood. She arced Sahar through the evening air and crashed it down over the gate with all her might.

The bones cleaved with an unnatural ease under the glowing blade of the sacred sword and she burst through the debris with a snarl, Sahar held aloft above her, ready for a strike.

*But what she saw instantly halted her tracks.

The invading brownies and the Caretakers were clustered in pairs of two all over the small pavilion where a bonfire crackled and roared in the very centre. The pairs were holding goat-hair ropes with small bells woven into the braid. They all looked at her with stunned expressions, dozens of pairs of eyes weighing down her.

She lowered the sword and looked over the scene more carefully. The couples in clusters were truly that…males and females paired together. She lifted her eyes to the back of the pavilion and saw brownies with strange contraptions that she decided were probably instruments. And then, to her great confusion, she saw Chewie and Artu sitting on a curved bench with a small group of the Caretakers. Chewie had a cup in his hand.

Rey looked back down at the brownies and in the stilted silence, one of the Caretakers lifted her rope and whirled it around her head, the bells clattering in a merry noise. She then gestured to Rey.

She wasn’t sure what the fae was asking at first and then the realization passed through her. 

It was a party. 

Not a raiding party for violence but a celebration.

She sighed, deflating, and rolled her eyes as she shook the glowing blade above her head like a torch dancing through the desert during Festival season.

The brownies cheered loudly and the musicians took their cue to play their tunes — joyful, fluttering songs that made Rey’s feet want to move despite the feeling of deceit that hung over her. 

In a moment, a Caretaker was ushering her into the village and towards her friends on the bench. She stood before them, sliding Sahar into her belt and placing her hands on her hips.

“Seriously, guys?” she said as she took a seat beside Chewie. 

He only roared and handed her a cup full of a greenish, sweet-smelling liquid. 

Rey sighed as she took a sip.

\------------------

*It had been hours since she barged into the Caretakers’ celebration in their village and Rey was growing tired of dancing.

As it turned out, the ‘raiding’ party from Pahk-To was actually the troupe of returning mates from their yearly hunting journey. They had brought back enough meat and hides to last them for several months while the frost season turned away their preferred fish from the shores. Chewie had relayed all this information to her while he drank merrily and insisted she join the festivities.

Reluctantly and feeling weighed down, she had agreed to food and drink and accepted several offers to dance, including Chewie himself.

But as the night wore on, she felt heavier and heavier until she just sat and watched the brownies in their merriment, lost in her own thoughts.

Sir Luke had lied to her. Had made her panic and worry for nothing. And while she was glad the Caretakers were not in any danger, the bitter tang of humiliation clung to her tongue and filled her insides. She hated the feeling.

A clatter drew her attention beyond the flickering rush of the bonfire. At the broken gate, her mentor shuffled into the village, easy as if nothing in the world were wrong. A flush rose in her cheeks and she felt prickly and hot, despite the chill of the air. She stood and made her way to the terrace that Sir Luke had gone to.

“Raid and plunder?” she said, not bothering to temper the edge in her voice.

“In a way,” he replied without turning from the ocean view. 

She came closer to him. “Is this some kind of horrible joke?”

“I’m sorry,” he chuckled, finally turning to face her. “I didn’t think you’d actually…you just ran so fast!” 

The amusement in his expression and his laughter ignited a fire inside of her that she’d never felt before.

“Haven’t you been paying attention to anything about me?” she said with deadly calm. Then, her words exploded. “I thought they were in danger! Of course I would try to do something!” Her eyes burned fiercely but she ignored the discomfort until it subsided.

Sir Luke stared at her for a moment with a look of genuine fear. He took a deep breath and then smoothed his features into something soft that made her angrier to look at.

“Rey, that’s what the Uprising needs. Not some old husk of an oligarchy. Don’t you understand that now?”

Enough.

She was done being respectful of someone who clearly didn’t deserve it. Whoever this man was, he was not the Knight she had admired her whole childhood. She took two swift steps towards him, her hand thrusting to gesture at the dark water on the horizon. 

Her face was inches from him.

“I understand that across that ocean our friends are really dying. Our family…” Her voice wavered with the emotion that crashed inside her. The emotion that she’d been pushing down in favour of trying to be positive all this time. But now, she couldn’t hold it back anymore.

Finn, laying unconscious in the healers camp, vulnerable. The Queen’s sadness hiding behind the glimmer of her eyes. BeeBee running scared from the Order. Han’s body falling over the edge into the river of fire.

It all collided and mingled inside her until sobs threatened to burst from her very depths. From a place she never let anyone see.

Her words came out strangled and rough.

“That old legend of Sir Luke the Skywalker that you hate so much…well, I believed in it.” She took a shuddering breath. “And I was such a foolish child…”

She couldn’t look at him. It hurt too much. 

She felt very young now, like the last time she had seen her parents sailing away without her. The valiant Knight she had admired during the hardest years of her life was just as much a lost and scared human as she was. Only, she was willing to do something.

The people they both loved hung on a dangerous line in this war and though she had only been aware of it for a few weeks, it had left its gouge in her soul. And Sir Luke, the only hero who could tip the scales for freedom, would rather let them rot out of the sky than lift a finger to help them.

Rey thought back to the words of the old sage in Takodana. 

The belonging you seek…

They were empty now. For there would be no sense of belonging with the last Dragonslayer.

She whirled around and fled. She didn’t look back or hesitate. If she was going to be alone in this, she wanted to be truly alone.

“Rey. Rey, come back. Please!” she heard Sir Luke call to her from the terrace. But there was only one thing he could say that would make this right.

And now she knew he wouldn’t.


	8. Mirror, Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angry and heartsick, Rey has another conversation with a very exposed Dragon Lord. Afterwards, she set off to ask the Darkness some questions.

*The cold air had turned her wet cheeks frigid but she didn’t care. 

Her limbs felt heavy as she tackled the uneven ground back to her hut in the dim starlight. She’d cried her frustration and worry out by the time she reached the base of the main peak and the tracks of tears on her face were all that was left of her outburst with Sir Luke. If she stood still for long enough, she could still hear the wild, merry music of the village celebration carrying on the breeze. 

She’d forgotten her cloak in the temple and goosebumps danced up and down her back and arms. She hugged herself, hoping the warmth of her own body heat would last until she reached her hut and could get a small fire going, if it got much colder. 

A presence she knew all too well tugged at her aura and she halted, rolling her eyes. 

Not now. Not when she felt so lousy and tired.

He honestly had the worst timing.

She cursed herself silently for not telling Sir Luke about their connection in the time she’d been able to. Perhaps he could have given her a solution to stop whatever magic was at work so that she didn’t have to endure anymore surprise meetings with her enemy.

Though, her curiosity had been what drew her into her own secret. Curiosity and…something else she couldn’t quite put a name to. 

Rey took a resigned breath. “I’d rather not do this now.”

A pause and then Kylor’s deep voice answered from behind her. “Yeah, me neither.”

He sounded nearly as tired as she felt.

Well, if they were going to continue being stuck with each other, she wasn’t going to hold back her questions or her mood. He’d answered her easily enough the last time that she decided to test the limits.

She turned around to face him as she said, “Why did you hate your fath—“ 

The words instantly evaporated on her tongue and her eyes were pinned to the sight of naked skin as she struggled to control her gaping jaw.

Kylor stood before her, stripped down to the waist of his charcoal trousers, pale, bare chest and torso stark against the night, black wings protruding from solid back muscle like arcing shadows. Rey held her breath for the briefest of moments, taking in the sight of him before hastily averting her glance.

The cold stinging of her cheeks disappeared under the heat of a flush. She was grateful the night had washed away everything of colour.   
“Do you…do you have a…a cloak or something you could put on?” The awkwardness pressed down hard on her and her heart beat a vigorous battle drum inside her ribcage.  
  
She peaked from under her brow to see if Kylor had answered her with action. But to her horror, the Dragon Lord took a solid stance and crossed his arms in front of him with a grace and ease that told her he definitely wasn’t going to hide himself from her gaze, no matter how uncomfortable she was. In fact, despite his lack of smile, a glimmer danced in his eyes and amusement hinted in every feature of his face.

The bastard was enjoying this. Great.

She hardened her look and focused it only on his features. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of being distracted from asking the things that had weighed heavy on her.

“Why did you hate your father?” she shot. “Give me an honest answer.”

He took a step closer to her, lowering his chin to keep their eye contact. “You’re asking the wrong question.” His reply was even and unfazed in a way that made Rey boil. She’d had enough of Skywalker men toying around with her mind.

“Don’t play games with me!” She stabbed an accusing finger at him and tears bubbled up and brimmed over, tracking down the sides of her face. “You had a father who loved you and gave a damn about you! And you hated him for —”

“I didn’t hate him.” His words came quickly but his tone settled softly between them. She wished he would just yell at her. Be angry that she would ask such questions and try to silence her. 

Because then, it would be easier to hold onto her own anger and distain. Instead, she was left with confusion and wonder.

“Then why?” She ground out the words through bared teeth as if aggression would stave off the flood gates that threatened to burst open.

“Why what?” He sounded like he was asking for clarification but she could tell by the narrowing of his onyx eyes that it was a challenge. To hit him with her best shot. “Why what? Say it.”

She took a shuddering breath. “Why did you…why did you kill him? I can’t understand it,” she said, shaking her head.

“No?” He raised his eyebrow ever so slightly. “You’re own parents threw you away like garbage.”

“They didn’t!” Her heart swelled with pain at the thought. They couldn’t have cared so little for her that they considered her rubbish to be tossed away. She wouldn’t believe it was true. Some part of them must have cared that they sold her. They must have.

Kylor took another step closer.

Rey now noticed that the jet tendrils curling loosely around his horns were damp and that he smelled as fresh as rainwater, though his usual scent of wood smoke still clung under the cleanness. 

His next words pulled her attention back to the conversation.

“They did,” he said firmly. “I saw what you remember. I watched them leave you in servitude, alone.” 

Up until now, he had kept his aura minimal and shaded. But now, the anger that she had wished from him seeped out and billowed around her like a cloud. Though it was strong, she realized by the expression on his face that none of it was meant for her. 

“And yet you still can’t stop needing them,” he continued in the same calm, casual tone. “It’s your greatest weakness. You’re looking for them everywhere, first in Han Solo…now in Skywalker.” 

She dropped her stare and blushed. She’d forgotten how much he had seen of her deepest thoughts when he'd interrogated her. It was true she had felt a paternal connection with the old sky captain but with Sir Luke? Had she thought of him as more than a mentor? Had that been why his rejection and betrayal of her trust had hurt her so deeply?

She shook her head. “No, I…I don’t.”

As she dragged her eyes back up to look at him, she let her gaze fall on the sight she’d been avoiding. Her breath wavered as she examined him briefly, silently.

She already knew he was broad — very broad — in the shoulders and chest. But seeing him without armour and all the black that concealed his form, he seemed less like the beastly figure she had remembered from the forest. If it hadn’t been for his horns and wings, he would have looked like a normal man. She noticed the thin, orange lines, that snaked up his neck and jaw, extended all the way down his torso like fire vines and disappeared under the waist band of his trousers.

She gulped down the sensation that fluttered in her chest. 

Averting her eyes upward, she saw the raised scars that marked his flecked, pale skin. The ones at his shoulders and the long jagged line that trailed up his collarbone to his neck and across the right side of his face. And she realized now how extensively she had delivered her final blow in the mountains. Despite herself, a pang of regret coiled up in her gut. 

His eyes were curious when she flicked her gaze up to meet his. “Did he tell you what happened that night?”

Her tone came out more defensive than the snarl she had intended. “Yes.”

Kylor’s eyes narrowed. A hint of a growl accompanied his reply. “No.” 

He took another step closer to her, closer than he had been since the Fortress, and she couldn’t stop her heart from hammering inside her chest. She knew somewhere deep within their connection that he didn’t intend on hurting her. So why was her body reacting so intensely? Screaming danger? 

She controlled her breathing and opened her mouth to ask him what he meant, when he spoke first.

“He sensed my power, as he senses yours, and he feared it…just as he fears you,” he said. 

Rey’s blood ran cold. Before now, she hadn’t thought much more about what happened the day of her lesson. The fear she had seen lighting up Sir Luke’s eyes when he stared at her. And it made her wonder. 

Kylor continued, “He kept isolating my training away from the other students. I didn’t understand why — until I woke up with him standing over my bed with his Sword raised. He was ready to strike me down, like the monster he had already decided I was.” The cold distance in his voice made him sound as if he were talking about another person, another life. “But I overpowered him before he could let the blow fall. Trapped him under the ceiling of my cabin. The others wanted to know what happened but they didn’t believe me. Didn’t believe their mentor would do that to his own nephew.”

Rey remembered what Sir Luke had said in his version of the event. Remembered the bodies laying scattered over the fire-lit field in her vision. 

“So you killed them,” she whispered.

Genuine hurt flooded through his aura and the evidence of his pain came in the slight furrow of his brows and a small step back from her.   
Pain laced with sadness. But not guilt.

“Lord Snoke had been keeping an eye on my uncle for some time. And when he sensed Skywalker’s fear of me, he sent the Squires of Enn to try and recruit me. Protect me. They arrived when my uncle tried to attack. The other students got in their way and paid the price. Those who didn’t wish to die for Skywalker came with me to train under Lord Snoke and the Squires. They didn’t survive the training...I did. The Light wanted me to perish that night, but the Darkness saved me.”

He studied her face, his next words spoken so quietly, she barely heard them over the wind. “I didn’t kill them.”

An odd sense of relief drenched her. 

She averted her eyes, remembering herself. “Liar,” she tossed weakly, but even she didn’t believe it. Kylor was standing bare before her, body and soul. She knew in her bones that this version of the story was true. 

Rey looked up, letting more tears fall silently down her cheeks, though she didn’t know if they were for her — or for him.

The Dragon Lord came closer to her again, coming nearer even than before, until she could feel the heat radiating off his skin. And as her heart continued to pound a rhythm through her veins, she wondered for the briefest of moments if she could reach out and touch him should she want to. He was her enemy and yet she found a part of herself — a part that she didn’t want to acknowledge — ached to be touched by him. To run her hands through his hair. She didn’t understand it and yet the longing was there all the same. 

She didn’t fight his closeness. Didn’t step away. Instead, she stared deep into the black, glittering pools of his gaze.   
“Let the past die,” he said softly. “Kill it if you must. It’s the only way to shake off the weights that hold you down. The only way you’ll be free to become what you were truly meant to be.”

Is that why he killed his father? Because some part of him was weighed down by his attachment to Captain Han? Perhaps she had been wrong to assume his hate. But how could anyone murder a person they cared about? 

He seemed so certain, so sincere in his belief. Rey felt dizzy thinking about it. If she let go of her past and released everything she had held onto, who would she be then? The thought rang both freeing and horrifying within her. 

Rey felt Kylor’s aura fading and when his dark eyes disappeared from her view, the cold sea wind cut thought the warmth of where he had been standing, sending a chill to her bones. She wiped the dampness of her tears from her face and sighed. 

There was so much to unpack from their conversation, including all the feelings that she needed to sort through and examine for clarity. But right now, she couldn’t stop thinking about what the Dragon Lord had said.

"The Light wanted me to perish that night, but the Darkness saved me."

She had never thought of the Darkness as something that would save or do any good thing at all. But thinking back to her time on the island, trying to plead with the Light’s last champion for understanding and help, and how it was the Darkness that had offered to answer her deepest question, she wondered if her perception of the Darkness was wrong. So far, the Light had only shown her confusion and lies, and the Darkness still tugged at her, whispering and calling. As it had the first time she’d opened up to it, she knew it would give her answers once again. 

She just had to prepare herself for what she would be shown. 

As the memory of the dark throne shadowed her thoughts, Rey turned away from the path to the monastery and headed back towards the southern shore. 

\------------------

*She reached her destination much faster than she thought she would, as if something had been pulling her along. Once she approached the rocky lip of the shore, she saw for herself that the place her magic had shown her was real. And that it cloyed with dark magic.

Pure Darkness. 

Punched into the rock in a perfect circle, the dark hole gaped in the night like a sinister yawn. Seaweed and other debris from the ocean coated the rim in shades of green altered by the silvery light filtering through the gathering clouds. Rey knew she needed to hurry before the sky thought about raining again. 

She knelt down by the hole and tried to peer inside but she saw nothing. She searched around her for a small stone or piece of driftwood and when she found the sizeable pebble just behind her, she threw it down into the fathomless dark. After a few seconds, she heard it splash and she knew it was much further down than she could climb without seeing. 

How was she going to get into the cavern then?

She did the only thing she knew how to do. Bracing her hands on the edge of the entrance, the kelp slimy between her fingers, Rey closed her eyes and concentrated on extending her magic out towards the heavy veil of Darkness radiating all around her. Being this close to the source, the connection was instant.

A gust of magic rose up from the cavern below and gripped her tightly, rippling through her own energy and tingling on her skin. 

She gasped at the intensity and tried to pull away but her hands would not respond. 

Screeching lightning.

Faceless crowd.

The dark throne.

Rey.

This time, the voice that called her was not the cold, charming voice from her dream. It was that of the ghostly man from the sacred tree. 

She tried to look for him, but her eyes began burning and an itching along her spine grew until she felt an extra weight on her back, dragging her down into the void.   
She flailed as she fell, scrabbling for anything to slow her down. Nothing but cold air met her clutching hands. She wobbled through the expanse spinning and tumbling in a way that she knew she shouldn’t be. Her balance was off. Finally, frigid, salty sea water engulfed her, sending sharp pins into her skin and nearly driving the remaining air from her lungs. 

Frantic, she pawed at the water, the weight at her back pulling her further down. This was it. This was how she was going to die. In the most foolish, un-heroic way anyone could ever go out. And worst of all, she would be completely alone when she passed. 

Then, she felt something solid under her feet. It cracked and shifted under her but she didn’t allow herself to question it before shoving off the pool’s floor as hard as she could. 

She remembered this…swimming. Remembered swimming with her brother in the pond by their house. It had been so very long since she’d practiced but she calmed her panic down, despite the burning in her lungs. One stroke after another, she kicked her legs with the momentum and swished her hands through the shadowed water until open air stung her fingers. 

Taking in a small amount of salt water with her gasp, Rey coughed as she paddled forward, glad not be dead. 

Now that she was down inside the cavern, a strange wind blew through the hollow space and bright torches burst into flame all around her, allowing her to see. A small black-sand beach stretched out across the space of the cave and she swam until her feet touched bottom. 

The tether on her back made it difficult to wade onto the beach and she wanted to reach back and yank it from her body. When she stood on solid ground, she stared ahead of her in astonishment, seeing now what had been holding her down.

Before her, a giant, crude mirror spanned the entire length of the beach like a reflective wall barring any further movement into the cave. Her eyes grew wide as she approached the mirror and saw her image clearly in the torchlight. 

Wings. Ash coloured wings protruded from the new muscles in her back, dragging in the sand like a dangling, wet garment. And the pupils of her eyes were slitted like a serpent. 

She shook, both from the cold and from the shock, as she came closer to the mirror to examine the horror she’d become. 

"…he feared me, as he fears you."

This. This had been why Sir Luke looked so afraid of her in those moments when her eyes burned. Because he saw a dragon within her. 

But how? A sick feeling welled up in her gut. Had she somehow made a pact with the Darkness? She thought back to everything that had transpired since her first lesson. 

As she sorted through the past two weeks, a relief came over her. 

Sahar. Sahar wouldn’t have lit up in her hands if she had truly become what Kylor was. But her question still went unanswered. 

Until she remembered what happened in the dungeon, when their magics had been mingled and seen inside each other’s minds. Could that have been how she now had dragon magic? Had a part of the dragon been transferred to her? The obvious response was yes, but still, she knew so little about how magic truly worked that it seemed so strange to believe. 

Regardless, there she was. A beast like the one she had hated for the past two months. But could she control it?  
Rey took a slow breath and thought of the peaceful mosaic pool in the temple. The platform that overlooked the ocean. The calming touch of the Light. The way she could hold back her aura. And despite the heaviness of the dark magic inside the cave, she felt the burning in her eyes subside and the weight of her wings melt away as she watched them fade into wisps of vapour. 

Swallowing the worry that made her throat dry, she took a step closer to the mirror. She realized then, that it wasn’t really a mirror, just a stone wall so polished that it reflected everything around it perfectly. Had the Caretakers done this? Or was it some sort of mechanism of the Darkness?

Ask.

The whisper echoed through the chamber until it was nothing more than a hiss. When she hesitated, it came again, louder this time.

Ask.

Staring deeply into her own reflection, her wet hair almost fully undone by the violence of her fall into the sea pool, she spoke in obedience. 

“Let me see them. Show me my parents, please. Tell me who I am and where I belong.”

Instantly, her body fractured into a thousand pieces — a thousand versions of herself. Stretching far ahead and far behind like the reflections in a gem. There was no pain and no fear. Only an insatiable curiosity growing like a fire inside her. She stepped forward through the image in front of her, passing as if walking through a mist. She continued on. 

Rey noticed that each fractured image of herself wore different clothing. The worn layers were all similar but the style of them and the colour changed enough that it seemed like she wore clothing from nearly every country and provincial territory in the Kingdom. 

And beside each image, a shadow loomed up larger next to her. No shape or form but larger. 

She brushed the detail from her mind and focused instead on the versions of her that lay ahead —- focused on the answers waiting at the end of the line. She knew they were there. She felt the swell of satisfaction awaiting her just beyond. She pushed through.

When she reached the end, she stepped through the last remaining fractal of herself and stood before the mirror again. It drew her closer and closer, beckoning her silently and she pressed her fingers to the cold surface.

The thrum of dark magic vibrated through her fingertips until it rattled her whole body, drawing out her own magic. It ribboned out from her hand like a stream of smoke and slithered inside the mirror wall, creating shadows in its surface. 

The shadows of people grew in the reflection, one tall like a man and one smaller and more shapely like a woman. Together they came closer to the edge of the mirror and as they walked, they merged until only the taller shadow remained. It stopped directly in front of Rey, as proportionate as if it were a real person standing before her. Its faceless form seemed to stare at her and without a sound, it pressed its own fingers against hers.

Her heart raced as the touch warmed her skin. It felt familiar somehow, though she didn’t know why. As its touch lingered, a strange clarity began to illuminate the shadow and she felt her pulse rushing in her ears. 

Finally, she was going to have the answers she needed.

A pain sliced through her a moment later when the shadow had come into full view and she found herself staring into her own hazel eyes. 

A stunned, dry sob escaped her throat.

It had all been for nothing. The Darkness had taunted her with truth and abandoned her just as much as the Light had. As much as everyone else had. 

She sunk to her knees, her fingers still touching her reflection, and rested her forehead against the mirror. She felt the wall yield her magic back to her as easily as it had taken from her. 

Empty. So empty. No one would listen to her. No one would care enough to take her questions seriously. To give her the answers her heart desperately needed. No one, except Finn.

And Kylor.

She let her mind replay all the interactions she had with the Dragon Lord in the past few weeks. How he had offered to release her in the Takodanian forest if she didn’t try to hurt him. How he had unshackled her and removed his helmet at her request. His offer to teach her how to use her magic. 

He had been surprised when she had used her infant abilities against him — twice; never once saw anger towards her in his eyes despite it. And he had been so curious about their connection from the start. 

He was a murderer and a beast. A destroyer of cities and provinces. And yet for some reason, he was drawn to a common scavenger. 

And she to him.

The admission made her weary heart pound. No matter how she wanted to deny it, here, looking deeply within her own reflection, she knew she felt something for him. Something not of hatred or anger. 

When everyone else had left or sent her away or shut her out, Kylor had been there to answer her questions. To appear at the exact times she needed someone to talk to, even if it had been through enmity. He’d done horrible things in the name of the Order. Things she couldn’t forget. But his reluctance to bring her pain and to treat her like an enemy despite the savageness of his beastly nature made her wonder. 

Could there still be a man inside the monster even now?

Shivers had taken hold of her as she sat against the mirror and she knew she had to get back to her hut before the cold set in. A crack of distant thunder rumbled overhead and she felt more tired than she’d felt in her whole life. 

Peeling herself from the sandy ground, she turned towards the sea pool and looked up at the starlit hole in the cave ceiling, high above her. Resigned, she knew there was only one way she was going to get out of there before she froze to death. 

Willing herself to focus on the image she’d seen in the mirror, she tried to summon up the dragon magic that Kylor had unwittingly given her. Had he known?   
It took a few disappointing rounds before she drew off of the Darkness around her and finally, the itching returned to her spine as she watched the wings sprout from her back like wisps of fog until they were large and solid. 

After many attempts to get airborne — the cold seeping into her so savagely that she couldn’t stop shaking — she raised herself off the ground and slowly lifted higher and higher into the cavern. Her wings were untrained and unstable, jolting her pulse when they would give out for an instant. But she managed to reach the lip of the ledge before the aching in her muscles made her wings cease altogether. 

Hanging from her waist down, Rey squirmed and pulled until she was back on the rocky shore, a string of seaweed wrapped around her arm. 

Another rumble of thunder cascaded through the night and rain poured down over the island, churning the ocean. Quaking under the icy droplets and the biting wind, she stumbled over the terrain back to her hut, wishing she wasn’t so alone.


	9. The Resolving of Grey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another Bond moment brings Rey and Kylor face to face with their budding feelings and loneliness. A confession leads to a line being crossed for the better and an unprecedented unification.

*Kylor sat on the stool in his chambers, his head in his hands.By some invisible intervention of the Magix, the rebels’ flagship was still in the air and still keeping their distance from The Dark Sovereignty, igniting his Master’s impatience and filling him with the dread of failure. He had hoped bathing with some of the water from the nixie pool would stave off the gnawing tension in his body, but after his encounter with Rey that evening, whatever remedial properties the water had were rendered useless.All he could think about now was the resilient scavenger girl from the deserts of Jakku. 

Her eyes, the eyes that had soothed him since he was a boy, looking at him not in hatred but in brokenness and anguished solitude.Emotions he knew all too well. 

She’d also looked at him — at hisbody —in a way no one ever had, as if she finally saw passed the dragon to the man beyond.

And found him desirable. 

He swallowed. 

A rush of emotions flooded his quarters that were familiar but not his own.And a presence brushed against his aura like warm sunshine dimmed by the passing of a cloud. 

He removed his head from his hands and looked up to see Rey sitting on his bed, soaking wet and peering at him with such pain in her red-rimmed eyes that he couldn’t help his initial reaction.

Kylor’s whole body went tense with alarm. 

“What happened?” he asked, not holding back the urgency in his tone. 

Rey’s moisture-clumped lashes fluttered and then her eyes dropped to the floor.Misery eddied around the room and engulfed him in concern. 

He was about to stand up and demand she let him find her, when she spoke. 

“I went to the cave.” Her voice came out tight and quiet.“The cave I wasn’t supposed to…after we talked.And I…asked the Darkness a question.”

He didn’t know what cave dwelled in the place she was, but if it was a sepulchre for the Darkness, her experience could have had wildly varying degrees of traumatic. 

He assumed this one had not gone well at all. 

Kylor let his gaze drift over her, searching for any sign of injury or indication of where she was.But he halted at the stark goosebumps that dotted her exposed skin and for the first time in the few moments she had been with him, he noticed her shivering.Instantly and savagely, he felt frustrated with the distance between them. 

Rey was freezing and he had no way of helping her.He hadn’t cared much about that sort of thing with anyone in such a long time, not since he was a boy.And yet, the concern came so naturally that he wondered at his own reputation. 

Even as he searched Rey’s eyes, luminous in the light, the dragon that he had become retreated under the rise of the man he used to be.The prince he remembered being. 

“You’re shivering,” he said.He creased his brow.

Rey looked at him again, weariness hanging in her features.“Oh…I have a fire going.It’ll just take a bit to warm up, that’s all.”

Not a sufficient answer.He couldn’t watch her freezing right in front of him while there was nothing he could do about it.

“Is there a blanket near you?Or something to wrap yourself in?”The care in his own voice seemed so foreign but he didn’t amend it. 

She hugged herself with crossed arms and began searching around her until the corner of a blanket appeared in her hand.And when it finally manifested in full form as she whirled it over her head and draped it around her bare skin, Ben realized where he had seen the familiar pattern before.A pang of guilt stabbed at his insides.

“It didn’t answer my question,” she said in a daze. She pulled the blanket around her more securely and nestled in its folds, staring blindly at his knees. 

Whatever happened, it had broken something inside of her. 

“What did you ask?” He kept his tone gentle, soothing.

“Who am I?” Her lashes fluttered, sending streaks of silent tears down her tanned cheeks.Embarrassment and shame curled into her aura.Then, she told him everything that happened in the cave — the dragon magic manifestation, the mirrored path of alternate Rey’s, the shadowed figures. 

“I should have felt trapped or panicked…but I didn’t.The images didn’t go on forever. I knew they were leading somewhere…that at the end it would show me what I came there to see.But it didn’t.”

More tears spilled down her face and she didn’t move to brush them away. “All the mirror showed me when the fog cleared was my own reflection.All of my hope just… _gone_ in an instant.I thought I’d find answers here, but I was wrong.And I’ve never felt so alone.” 

She said it as if it were a secret even from herself.Her gazed dropped, studying her hands and feet and anything else that would hide the pain that billowed against his aura. Then, her expression twisted into such great sorrow that it pierced him through.Her quiet sobs whispered against the silence of his chambers. 

Ben watched silently, helplessly, as she cried.They were so much alike in so many ways.If only she’d see it. He thought of the endless days of his childhood spent by himself as he explored the palace and stables, with only silent guards to keep him company.An empty table loomed in his mind, one that he had eaten countless meals at in solitude.And the looks on the fae tutors’ faces when he’d ask if his mother would be home before he went to sleep.

Falsely embraced and yet truly abandoned. 

An urge like a tidal wave swept over him and threatened to drag him under the current — the urge to reach out and wipe the tears from her face; to draw her in his arms for comfort. But he steeled himself against the pull, despite it’s strength.He knew she wasn’t physically there with him.Still, seeing her like this made him loathe every person who had ever walked away from her. 

The sting of emotion welled in his eyes and he said the words he had wanted to say weeks ago, when had felt her loneliness in the Fortress dungeon that matched his own.If only his pride hadn’t gotten in the way then, maybe she would have seen him beyond the dragon. 

“You’re not alone….not as long as I’m here.”

\-----------------------

Rey flicked her attention back to Kylor through a watery gaze. No, not Kylor.This wasn’t the monster she’d met in the forest.This was a cursed man, the son of the Queen — a lost prince. 

Ben.

His name rattled through her mind, sticking like it belonged. And when she had fully taken in his words, feeling them calm the pain inside her like a salve, she realized his inky regard had turned to liquid as well. 

She’d sought him out, the one constant presence since she’d been sent to Ahch-To, and every time — despite their enmity and convoluted experiences — he had somehow made her feel heard and understood and included in this whole, strange world in ways no one else had yet.Now, he was here again, mirroring her own heartache in expression and in aura.As if they shared the same pain. 

She stared deeply into him.

“Neither are you,” she echoed.And she meant every word.He blinked back the tears that shone in his eyes, his wings sagging on the floor behind him like a cape of night. She thought of Queen Leia and how sad she had become underneath her poised exterior whenever the soldiers had mentioned Ben’s — Kylor’s — reported movements.And she knew now that it had been more than just grief over losing her husband.

“It’s not too late, you know,” she offered. “To come back home and make things right.” 

She had expected him to brush off her comment or at least scoff.But instead, anguish and despair spilled out from his aura, filling the hut and weighing heavy around them.And she knew why.

She’d heard Captain Han’s words reverberate off the Fortress cavern — his invitation for Ben to return home.But if his father had believe that he could be saved from the control of the dragon — risked his life for that belief, then perhaps he could be.

Rey searched Ben’s face.And his gaze drew her into a place where she felt safe beyond what reason dictated. Safe and comforted.But also…

Exhilarated. Electric. Alive.

She knew he wasn’t really there with her, sitting so sullenly across the fire, and yet she still wanted to try — to reach out and touch him across the Kingdom, even if only for a moment.Slowly, she extended her hand out.

His breathing came out unevenly and his eyes were dark saucers that flicked between her face and her outstretched hand.His posture went straight and rigid, his hands curling into fists at his side. 

She halted.

He looked for all the Magix like a frightened animal, so unsure and ready to bolt at any moment, though he had never seemed more human to her than now.So she stayed there, halfway, waiting until he was ready to meet her in the middle. 

After a few more calculating glances between her and the offer she extended, Ben relaxed his posture and began to peel off one of his black leather gloves.He hesitated for only a breath and then slowly, slowly he reached out for her, his hand quivering. 

Uncertainty still lingered in the lines of his face and Rey did her best to project what she felt through her aura, hoping it would be strong enough to reassure him.Though, when he paused, she wondered whether that had made him more confident or more wary.

Finally, he pressed his fingertips against hers, warm and gentle. 

And a great gulf of Darkness shrouded her like a loving embrace.She saw a boy emerge from the black — the same boy from her vision and from Kylor’s mind. 

Young Ben. 

As he walked towards her, a light grew behind him steadily until it silvered the edges of him with it’s brightness.When he was close enough to her that she could see his face clearly, he stopped and peered up at her with his red-rimmed gaze.The scattered freckles and moles on his pale face looked like droplets of dark paint on parchment. 

Between one blink and the next, his eyes changed from rich, deep brown to striking blue, and suddenly, those freckles had rearranged themselves across his nose and cheeks, much like her own did. 

Then, he faded into the intensity of the light behind him and was gone. But the light continued to grow, consuming her also. 

When it cleared, she was surrounded by hazy grey, curling and billowing all around her like smoke.Ahead of her, a line of brilliant blue glowed and a shadow held it in it’s hand as it approached her.The figure was tall and broad in the shoulders, a shaggy silhouette of hair crowning it’s head.Another shadow appeared, shorter, and it joined the other hand in hand.The two turned to one another, the smaller figure reaching up and caressing the tall one’s face.Finally, the fog drifted away and Rey gasped.

Holding Sahar in his hand, adult Ben stood just beyond her, completely human.No wings, no horns.Just a man.But the thing that shocked her more was that the person caressing his face was someone she knew very well.

Herself. 

Dressed in rich, sweeping layers of gauzy linen, her brown hair undone and draping longer over her back and shoulders, this vision of herself gazed deeply into Ben’s face.Touching him in a way that made Rey ache inside.

Then, her other self turned and looked at her too. And Rey saw that her eyes were not brown-green, but bright, molten gold, as if they were lit up from inside. 

Something rushed through her.Emotions, thoughts, knowledge, memories.And she knew then, without understanding why, that this image of her had been in Ben’s mind long before she had ever met him.

The environment around her darkened and faded into the soft firelight of her hut. 

She took a shuddering breath, feeling tears slip down her face.Ben held her gaze still. 

“It’s me…” she whispered.She wanted to blurt out everything she had seen.Ask him all the questions that welled up inside her.But it all clung to her soul like the wet fabric of her clothes. 

“It’s you,” he whispered back.He let his glance fall and he swallowed. He stared into the fire as if he, too, could see it, feel it’s warmth.

“I don’t understand,” she said.But she realized by his lack of answer that he didn’t understand it either.And yet, he’d seen her before they met in the forest.She didn’t know for how long, but now his strange draw to her — and hers to him — started to make sense.It remained mostly shadowed in mystery but at least part of it was becoming clear. 

*Ben looked to their touching hands and then flicked his attention intensely to her.A single tear dripped down his stoic face and longing wrapped around her aura as warmly as the blanket tucked over her shoulders. 

This…what was between them…was right.More right than anything else she’d ever known.She felt it so strongly that doubt never crossed her mind. For whatever reason the Magix dictated, they were connected in a deeper way than she had understood. 

And despite war, enmity and abominable magic, it was right.

Rey brushed her fingers gently over his and guided his hand so that she could entwine their fingers, palm to palm.It seemed like they were made to fit perfectly together, ship pieces connecting to make a whole.She held up her other palm and after only a moment of hesitation, he laced them together as well. 

Emboldened by his willingness, she brought their interlocked hands towards her, carefully drawing him down to kneel between her knees.They were face to face now, close enough to feel his uneven breath tingle against her skin. 

She released her left hand and lifted it to trace a feather-light fingertip across the scar on his face.The one she had put there.She followed it with her touch as the scar trailed down the skin of his neck and over the curve of his collarbone.His breathing hitched and his throat bobbed, though he didn’t protest her touch.

“You’re hands are so cold,” he murmured. Then, he took her hands and pressed them both to his cheeks, laying his large palms over them like a shelter of soothing warmth.At first, her stiff joints stung against the dragonfire that heated his body.But after they had thawed to a normal temperature, the stinging gave way to pleasant tingles.

She tried to look away from him but couldn’t.A need so profound and so rooted within him stretched forth and surrounded her.And there, with the fires inside him burning with greater comfort than the flames in the hut — with his full lips just a breath away, she realized that she had that same rooted need.

\----------------------

How Ben had missed being touched.The last touch he had felt had come with the dying eyes of his father, a reminder of his monstrous nature.And his misery.But for the first time, he felt like a man again.Alive and breathing while his human heart took over for the beast that now lay docile and tamed at Rey’s feet. He closed his eyes against the coolness of her hands, marvelling at the way her touch could mar and heal with the same intensity. 

When he opened them again, she was studying him, his lips, his nose, the collar of his tunic.A primal feeling washed him in a dragon’s hunger. 

He swallowed it down, determined not to let it make a savage of him.He peeled her hands from his face and set them in her lap, squeezing her fingers affectionately before releasing them. 

Ben stared into the molten honey and jade of her gaze and drank deeply of it.It welcomed him in, begging him to return its longing.He reached up and cupped her face, slow and gentle, revelling in the feeling of her skin.He could hear the crackling of the fire now under the raggedness of his own breathing, but his mind was too preoccupied to think much of it. 

He swept his sight over her features, mapping out every line, curve and freckle.Seared them into his memory like a brand.He brushed his thumb over her lips — the softness, the blush of them in the lamplight of his chambers, and his hunger flared hot.Every part of his dragon nature wanted to devour her whole. But once, just once, in his miserable existence, he wished to have something tender and vulnerable.Something not tainted by fear and ambition and pain. 

Her lashes fluttered as he dragged his eyes back to hers and he leaned in towards her.When she didn’t pull away, he pressed his lips against hers with a delicacy that felt like the whisper of a dream — a dream he was terrified would vanish if he pressed too hard.With his hands trembling from concentration and restraint, he pulled back just enough to look at her, his fingertips still resting at the curve of her jaw. 

He exhaled.

She was still there.Real and tangible and staring at him with the same desperate desire that burned in his belly. 

With a gasp, Rey crushed her lips over his, her fingers suddenly twining through the hair at the back of his neck, pulling him closer. 

*Ben let go of the tether inside him and with a low growl, he pressed into her kiss, ferocious and devouring. 

At first, it was all a clash of teeth and noses and strange angles as they embraced the feral feelings that rose to claim them.But after a few moments, they fell into a sync that smoothed the desperation in their actions.When Ben finally broke their kiss, they were both panting.

Rey pressed her lips together and stared at him, looking as if fear had gripped her.Fear and regret.But no such emotion seeped through her aura if she truly did feel that way.He ducked his head for a moment, dropping his hands into her lap to press his palms against the damp fabric of her legs.When he peered back up at her from under his brow and saw the smile that slowly came to her face, his insides melted.The smile made her eyes squint and sparkle and her dimples puckered at both sides of her cheeks. 

She was the most the beautiful person he had ever met, in every conceivable way. And he knew he would neverdeserve a heart like hers, no matter if he lived forever in slavery to her every wish. 

His thoughts halted suddenly as her hands meandered up across his chest, feeling the contours and angles of the muscle beneath his clothing.His breath hitched despite himself when she brought her fingers to rest at the top tie of his tunic.She locked him a stare that burned a path down his body, igniting the dragonfire boiling in his blood. Silently, she tugged the string and pulled apart the leather lacing so that a deep V of his chest was revealed. 

She traced a cool fingertip down the centre of his sternum and he dug his talons into her thighs with just enough pressure to make her shudder.Then, Rey dropped her hands to the buckle of his over-tunic and worked it free until it clattered to the floor.She slid off his layers, slowly and with great care, until at last she reached for the hem of his tunic and drew it up towards his arms, his torso open to the air. 

For a fleeting moment, he wanted to stop her — to hide himself away from her despite that she had already seen part of him bare.But she was so captured by him…so curious. She wanted him, more ardently than anyone ever had.No one looked at him that way and the novelty of it stirred his primal nature.He didn’t dare discourage her or perhaps whatever enchantment she had woven over him would break and he’d be alone again. 

And he never wanted to be alone again.

Ben lifted his arms for Rey to pull his tunic free, ducking his head so the fabric wouldn’t catch in his horns.

She touched his stomach, his chest, the scars on his shoulders from their fight that seemed like a lifetime ago.

He kissed her again, deep and burning, and she matched his intensity with her own. He slid his hands across the outside of her thighs and around her hips to the small of her back, where he pulled her into him.He wanted to use all his strength to press her body to him, but he knew, despite the dragon magic that had transferred to her, she was still very human.

He had to be careful not to hurt her. 

Encouraged by her forwardness, he grasped the wet fabric of her own tunic and peeled it from her slender form. 

He held his breath as he looked down at her, his eyes taking in the tanned curves and soft lines before him. 

He had never been so restrained or so hesitant in his life. But he was terrified of making the wrong move and having this moment fall apart in his hands like sand. Would the Magix punish him if he crossed this line with the Light?Even if they did, he had to know what if would be like to touch her like this, to feel this close to someone for the first time in his life.And if he perished in the wake of the Sacred Magic’s wrath, so be it.For the sake of such a touch, it would be worth it. 

But Rey was not afraid.He felt it in her aura.Her look was soft upon him as she took his hands and placed them on the small, cold mounds of her chest, kissing him like a call to come home. 

And it undid him.

\-----------------

He growled against her mouth, sending tingles all the way down her body. Rey gasped when he bit her lip, just hard enough to make her squirm against him.He trailed his kisses down her jaw and neck, nipping with gentle teeth, and when he pressed his lips against the tender skin of her chest, she arched back, pulling him in closer. 

She couldn’t get him close enough, it felt like.

Finally, his broad hands cupped her backside and dragged her into his lap.There was no thinking.Just actions.She wrapped her legs and arms around him as he rolled back onto his feet and stood.

The feeling of his bare skin against hers soothed away the last traces of despair in her heart as she held fast to his solid form, his wings curving in towards her. 

Gently, so very gently, Ben kneeled on the thatched cot and laid her down on it, hovering over her, kissing her like a man who needed her air to breath. 

“Ben,” she whispered into his ear.She hadn’t meant to speak at all, but his touch drew his name from her lips.He went still and lifted his head from her neck, surprise flooding his aura.Surprise and such affection that she was nearly lost in it.His dark eyes shone with emotion and she wondered if he had ever been like this before with someone else — so exposed and utterly human. 

He kissed her lips, soft and light, as if she were precious to him. It brought a flush to her face. 

Ben raised himself back up and the heat of his hand warmed her cold skin as he drew his palm in slow agony down her throat, her collar, her chest, her stomach — and lower — leaving a trail of goosebumps in his wake. 

She couldn’t take it anymore.She needed him, urgent and immediate. 

She reached up and began unlacing his trousers.His eyes darkened as he watched her hands work and when she was done, he did the same for her.Having pulled off the rest of their clothes, his body finally covered hers, a broad frame of solid muscle wrapping her aching bones in the desert heat.In his shelter, she was home again under the clear sky and bright sun. 

Rey kissed him.Kissed him with an emotion that she had not been prepared for.And as she took him into her body, his eyes a warm brown in the light of the fire, she let that emotion seep into her aura as strongly as she felt it. 

And Ben’s aura mirrored her own.

Biting her lip at the discomfort-turned-pleasure, she wound her hands through the thick tendrils of his black hair, letting the texture caress her palms and fingers.As she explored, she suddenly froze when she reached the top of his head.Her brow creased and she pushed him away ever so slightly. 

His horns were gone.The talons on his fingers had vanished, leaving behind human nails. In fact, the only trace of the dragon that still remained was his coal-coloured wings that were lifted out over them like a shadow canopy.She saw the long scar across his left wing where she had slashed the membrane with Sahar in the snowy wood. 

He stared down at her, panting, concern etched on his handsome features.She smiled, brushing a stray lock of midnight hair behind his ear, and she pulled him down with a kiss, drawing him into her depths. 

He groaned.

Whatever magic had tamed the dragon, it was something to be pondered another day.Right now, it was just Ben and Rey and all the beautiful mystery of their connection as they clung to each other in the quiet of her hut, the crackling of the fire and the rush of the ocean playing a song for their passion beneath the moonless sky. 


	10. The Last Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sir Luke reconnects with the Magix and his injured sister. Rey and Ben's pillow talk is interrupted by Sir Luke. Ben resolves to keep Rey safe from his Master no matter what it takes. Rey fights her mentor for Ben.

*Rey had been right and Luke knew it.He had taken his shattered ego and used it against an innocent girl just to prove a point.And it was so unlike anything he once thought himself to be.Perhaps the old, miserable raisin he’d become was too far removed from that farm boy with dreams of adventure to be considered Luke the Skywalker anymore.

He had stayed at the Caretakers village for a couple of hours after Rey left. Partly because he wanted to let her cool down before he talked to her again.And partly because he feared how he would see himself in her eyes when he did.Finally, he trudged over the jagged terrain back to the main peak of the island but instead of heading towards the monastery huts, he climbed the spiralling stone stairs up to the temple.There was something he needed to do before he went to apologize to his student. 

Regardless of the shows of dragon magic Rey had manifested, he knew better than to think she had chosen it.And more over, despite that she was naive and stubborn, she had a better heart than most and was unwaveringly brave when it came to the lives of others.And he had tried to squash that like the coward he’d become. 

It was time to rectify that, even if just in one aspect. 

Luke reached the balcony and stared out at the night.Clouds had gathered to shade the stars from view and the rain that had fallen not long ago, would return.But for now, a small hole in the clouds allowed a sliver of the moon to peak through and it was so brilliant that the light reflecting off the ocean and off the stones was enough to illuminate the whole island like a shimmering chalk relief. 

He approached the platform in the centre of the balcony, studying the crack that ran violently down the middle of the slab, and he bent to place his hands flat upon it. It was cold and damp under the touch of his intact hand.He closed his eyes and tugged on the sleeping energy that he had locked up inside himself for the last decade. 

It took a few extra seconds longer than he had planned, but he felt it stir like magma in a wakening volcano. The ground rumbled under him in response and he felt the rush of his aura through him as it burst to life once more. Now, he could be sensed again by the one person he cared the most about.

He took a deep breath and pushed his aura out as far as it would extend.And just as he knew would happen, he felt the brush of a familiar presence reaching back for him. 

But something was wrong. 

Her aura came to him weakly and far too softly for his sister’s presence. Auras traveled only so far, even with their twin connection strengthening the reach between them.But this wasn’t just distance.She was gravely injured.Alive and stable, but injured all the same.Sadness and hope swirled in her aura and he resisted the urge to pull away from her. 

_Luke_ , she sent through her magic.He gasped at hearing his sister say his name for the first time in a decade. 

“Leia.”His voice was only a whisper drowned out by the wind rushing against the peak but he knew she could hear it.

Warm affection flooded her aura and it almost brought tears to his eyes.Whatever had happened to her, it certainly had taken away the sharp edge he’d been expecting.Or more likely, his sister’s heart had grown tired of being angry with those she loved. 

Especially after Han.

Though, he honestly wasn’t sure he wanted Leia’s mercy after everything he’d cost her.

He sent a wave of love through his aura before he retreated from her.And as her presence faded from him, he hoped that wherever she was, she would be safe. Despite his refusal to join the war, the thought of losing her, too, was beyond what he could handle. Leia had always been the strong one in that regard. Far stronger than he. She’d lost so much more and yet she remained steadfast and resilient, even in her current condition. She always amazed him and it was one of the many things he admired about his sister. 

A hollow feeling settled in his chest and he pulled his hands away from the platform, determined not to let his loneliness get the better of him. 

As he mulled over his list of regrets, he lifted his right hand, the one he lost in his confrontation with his father, and let his magic take control of the wooden replacement once again, its iron-hinged joints scraping stiffly as he wiggled his fingers. 

He could never return to the Kingdom again.He’d sworn it to the Light.But he could at least send another Knight in his place.He’d already wasted precious time since Rey had come to Ahch-To and there was much to teach her.He only hoped that his student would give him another chance to prove to her that he really was the Knight she had believed in for all those years. 

As he turned and left the temple for the monastery, he felt a drop of rain splatter against his face. 

_Soon_ , he told himself.Soon, Rey would find what she came there to seek. 

\--------------------

*Ben lay panting on his bed, Rey curled up tightly against him, his hand twined in her chestnut locks.Sweat beaded between their close bodies but he didn’t care. This was the most at peace he had ever felt and nothing compared to those few miraculous moments they had spent together.Was it strange to think this way?To feel that sentimental about something so new and uncertain? 

Maybe. 

But it didn’t matter.Rey’s head nestled into his chest, her breathing slowing with his, and no matter what transpired now, he would at least have this moment to look back on. 

He curled a strand of her damp hair around his finger as he caressed her arm with a feather-light touch.The sensation made her shudder next to him and she giggled, a sound he’d never heard from her before. It brought an airiness to the weight that pressed into his soul. 

“That tickles,” she murmured against the crook of his shoulder.He was tempted to continue doing it, if only to hear her laugh again. But he behaved and instead, rested his hand in the curve between her ribs and her hip.A place he discovered he rather liked touching anyway. From his side-lying position, he stretched out his left wing and draped it over them. 

As he looked over Rey’s shoulder to gaze into the spitting fire pit that had manifested in his quarters — another strange miracle of their bond — Ben wrapped her tighter into him, gently pressing his lips to her forehead. 

“You’re…alright?” he asked. “I didn’t hurt you?”

He felt her smile against his skin while she hesitated.“No,” she said, at last, breaking the tension that had begun to coil in his gut.“You didn’t. I’m perfectly alright.More than that, actually.I feel…I feel…”

“Whole,” he whispered.He felt the same way.

“Yes.That’s it.It’s strange, though.I never thought it would be you.But there was always something…”

“Pulling us together.”

She smiled again. He wished he was in a position to see it. Her dimples were so beautiful. 

She moved her arm from its tucked place between them and hovered her palm over his wing, near the scar.She tilted her head back to look at him and he knew what she was asking.In response, he lifted his wing into her touch.As softly as she would stroke the petal of a flower, she slid her fingertips over the membrane and down the scaled digits.To his surprise, it sent a shudder down his spine.

Rey giggled.“Looks like you’re ticklish too.I didn’t think a dragon _could be_ ticklish.”

“Neither did I.”

She smiled and lifted her chin to kiss him. 

After her discovery, she continued to caress his wing, her strokes more firm this time. But instead of a tickle, it began to ignite a different kind of sensation in him.One that made him want to growl and devour every morsel of her.He swallowed down the feeling, trying to concentrate on anything else that wasn’t her touch. 

She must have felt something in his aura because she trailed her fingers up his wing to the curve of his shoulder and down across his chest where she rested it against the beating of his human heart. 

“You said the other night that you had nightmares too. What are they like?”

Though her voice was casual, he knew there was a hint of fear under the curiosity. 

As he thought about the images that often drove him from sleep, he shifted and crossed his ankle over hers.Hesitation gripped him.He didn’t want to ruin this moment with her by opening up the other demons that ran amok inside his head.But something about Rey always won over his desire to hide himself away. 

“They are…dark…violent,” he said. When she didn’t push out of his embrace, he continued.“I see some of the things I’ve done…things I’ve caused, playing again and again. Things I thought I buried.” 

His father’s silent goodbye as he tumbled into the volcano, blood staining Ben’s hands and clothes in rivers. 

His mother burning, screaming, falling like a dying phoenix, calling his name through scorched vocal chords. 

Faces of his former friends, slashed and mutilated by brutal, cruel weaponry, crawling towards him in the shadows of his mind. 

He took a deep breath, trying to banish the images. “Lately, I’ve been seeing something different.Something that disturbs me even more.” 

“Tell me,” she whispered.Her hand trembled against his chest. Ben rested his cheek on the top of Rey’s head as he spoke, hoping it brought her as much comfort as it did him. 

He stroked her hair.

“There’s lightning.And a crowd of figures without faces. And a throne, black and jagged like…”

“A dark star.”Her voice shook with the words and she tilted her head to meet his eyes.Terror swam in her wide regard. 

He furrowed his brow.“Yes…but how did you —“ 

Of course.

“You’ve been dreaming of this too.” Examining his face, she nodded. “For how long?” he asked.

“Just since I’ve come to the — to where I am.”She dropped her eyes.

Even now, she wouldn’t tell him where she was.Whether it was to protect herself or protect his uncle, he didn’t know.Probably both. That loyalty to the Light would have gnawed at him.But not at the moment.Not when they were like this.

But the timing of her dreams roughly matched with his and he wondered if it was simply a product of their bond — which was still largely a mystery to him — or if it meant something else.Something more ominous. 

“What does that mean?”Rey’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. She was shaking.He pulled her further into the heat of his body, though he felt it was more fear than cold.

He kissed the top of her head.Her hair smelled like spring rain over the ocean. “I don’t know.But we’ll figure it out. Together.”

She seemed satisfied with that answer, her fear fading from the magic between them, and she wiggled up the bed so that they were face to face.She laid her hand on his cheek and kissed the end of his nose.Then, she pressed her lips to his, light at first but suddenly hot and hungry.Wanting. Urgent. 

She opened his mouth with hers and he savoured the taste of her as she wrapped her leg over his and pulled him down over her.Her fingers clawed at his skin and the sensation made him growl, the fire in his blood boiling with desire. 

Rey groaned into his ear when he trailed his teeth down her neck and she pushed her hips up into him, driving out the last ounce of willpower he had left.He raised himself up, ready to conquer her the way her body pleaded for him to do —

*Crack! Bang! Rumble!

“STOP!” 

They both whipped their heads across the room at the deafening sound, rain suddenly pouring over his back and wings.Ben sucked in a breath when he saw the figure now standing in the middle of his chambers, wearing a terrible mask of anger and horror. 

Luke.

Ben moved off of Rey as she sat up, desperately groping for the blanket that was tangled by her feet.The look on his uncle’s face brought Ben’s wing instinctively over her, a shield between her and the man who had once tried to murder him. And then lied about it. 

He growled, deep and threatening, baring his teeth and letting the dragon slip into his eyes.He reached down to take Rey’s hand, to mesh their fingers together, to let her know he would stand with her if Luke made a move.

But his grasp went through thin air and her aura rolled away so fast he didn’t even have time to say the words that had been on his tongue all evening.She gave him one last gaze before her form faded into the dim lamplight of his chambers.His arm jolted out for her, but she was gone, leaving the world dark and frozen in her absence. 

He stared at the corners of the now-empty room, rain water dripping off his hair and wings. 

Rey was alone.Alone with an angry Dragonslayer…after sleeping with a dragon.

His panic pitched high and fast, his breathing turning rapid.He hadn’t thought about that — about what would happen if Luke caught them. And now his foolish desire had put Rey in very real danger. _Alone_. 

Flashes of memory struck him like lightning, pain clenching his gut.The green glow of Bhardyl rose above him in the night of his mind, the shouts of his uncle echoing through the room before the stroke fell. 

If he lost Rey — if his uncle took her from him for good, there wouldn’t be an army or power in existence that could stop him from burning down the entire Kingdom in vengeance. 

He closed his eyes, clenching his fist to relieve the images from his psyche.Burning blood trickled down between his fingers from where his talons had pierced the skin of his palm.

Ben forced himself to calm the raging terror that promised to upend him.Focus.He needed to focus. 

Rey had been able to beat him at his own game, twice.And that was when her magic had been brand new to her.She’d survived the desert for a decade, alone and with only herself to rely on amongst older and more ruthless scavengers. Surviving was her fortitude and she was no idiot.She would hold her own.She would stay alive. 

He had to believe that — to believe in _her_.

Drawing in deep breaths, he felt the pain under his sternum subside.But there was no time for him to fully ponder everything that had just happened between him and Rey. A powerful tug yanked at the tether tied to his magic and he knew the summons all too well.

The Sovereign Liege sought an audience with him and he knew exactly why. 

Rey’s aura had lingered too long and too intensely for her to have gone unnoticed by his Master’s vigilance.Yet another thing that was Ben’s doing.And if Lord Snoke even suspected that she might come looking for the dragon again, then she was in grave danger. 

Snoke had wanted her for his own purposes since she bested Ben in the dungeon.And her power would be prized.But his Master would want to possess her, possess her like he possessed Ben — a pet to use however he saw fit to benefit the Order and himself. 

If neither the promise of power nor pain could sunder her loyalties to surrender his uncle, his Master would take what he wanted from her, one way or another.And snuff out her life without a second consideration.If he could not wield her magic, then she would be forfeit. 

Ben knew this. 

And he would not let it happen. 

A strange sense of certainty settled over him, unifying his human heart and the dragon nature in a way he’d never known until now.Perfect clarity sharpened his focus and as he redressed in the creaking silence of his chambers, he knew exactly what he had to do.He just had to figure out how. 

He thought of Rey now, of everything they had shared that evening, and an emotion welled up inside him that he hadn’t felt in a very long time.He’d almost forgotten the word: hope. 

As soon as he allowed himself to feel it, he knew it was true.Rey was his last hope.And Snoke would have to pry that from his cold, dead fingers. 

The next time he saw Rey, the Sovereign Liege would demand that Ben bring her to him.And it would be the last thing Snoke would ever command.

\----------------------

*Rey stared at the place beside her where Ben had been, clutching her blanket to her naked form.The heat of his body still lingered on her skin and the chill of the rain threatened to steal that small piece of him from her. She whipped her head back to her scowling mentor and formed a grimace of her own as she wrapped the blanket around her like a dress and tucked it securely.

She stalked towards him, barefoot, over the slick floor of her destroyed hut, it’s domed shelter now nothing but a heap of crumbling stone exposed to the elements.

She balled her fists. 

“Is it true?Did you try to _murder_ him…in his _sleep_?” She couldn’t contain the disappointment and the disgust in her voice. 

Sir Luke’s dripping face was red, either from anger or embarrassment.She didn’t know. 

“Leave this island and never come back, do you hear me? Never!” he yelled over the wind and the chatter of the downpour.He turned from her and walked away, but she would not be so easily dismissed.Not this time. 

“Stop.Stop!” 

When he ignored her words, she went back into the rubble of the hut and pulled her staff free.In a blur of fury and second-hand betrayal, Rey rushed towards him and whacked him with the wooden weapon.

He stumbled and fell to the ground.When he turned over, she held the end of her staff at his throat. She bared her teeth.“Did you do it?Did you create Kylor?”

He sneered. “You opened yourself up to the Darkness for what?A pair of pretty eyes?”

Rey couldn’t stop the words before they flew out of her mouth.“You _know_ it was more than a pair of pretty eyes.”

Sir Luke’s gaze widened, almost imperceptibly, and then his scowl twisted in anger.He pushed himself up to his feet and pulled the fire poker free from her hut with magic.For a moment, she stared at him, stunned, as he held the long, thin iron in his right hand — the wooden hand.

So that’s why he couldn’t use it before.It was controlled by magic. 

Sir Luke raised the weapon and she gritted her jaw with the impact against her staff.She hit out with the other end of it and they exchanged blows through the splashing of the torrent around them. 

Eventually, the vehemence of her attacks worked against her and she over swung, missing her mentor and allowing him to wallop her over the back.She realized then, that even in his anger, he was holding back from truly hurting her, for the blow, while smarting, didn’t harm her. 

She whirled around and attacked again but after three strikes, the Knight hooked the end of the poker around her staff and disarmed her with decades worth of skill. But Rey refused to surrender. Not until she had her answers.

Reaching out with her magic, she summoned Sahar from beside her bed.She didn’t think about it.She simply acted.And as soon as it flew into her grasp, the blade pierced the storming night with radiant blue.She held it aloft, ready to strike through her mentor’s weapon. 

He stumbled back against the ancient stone stairs leading up into the peak, softening his fall with magic.Sahar cast its glow over his features, and she knew then, that he had yielded the fight. 

She turned the hilt downward and poked the blade into the soft, muddy space between stones, where it went it dark leaving her grasp.

“Tell me the truth. You owe me that much…you owe _him_ that much.”

Sir Luke swallowed and turned his regard out to the ocean, unseeing. His voice was resigned.Tired.

“I saw Darkness,” he said.“I’d sensed it building in him…seen in moments during his training.But when I went inside his head that night, it was so much stronger than I imagined.Snoke had already twisted his soul.He would bring death, destruction, pain and the end of _everyone_ I loved.And for the briefest of moments, I lost all reason…all the compassion of my training. On pure instinct, I thought I could stop it…by ending him.” The defensive tone in his words suddenly faded and he seemed to age before Rey’s eyes.

“But the reflex passed like a fleeting shadow. When I realized what I had considered doing to my own flesh and blood, I was left with shame…and consequence.I didn’t have time to tell him that everything was okay.That I was…sorry.And the last thing I saw before the ceiling came down was the eyes of a betrayed and frightened boy, who’s mentor — who’s _uncle_ — had failed him.”

As Sir Luke confessed the truth, the rain washing over his haggard features and drowning the sternness of them, she saw it.She had thought the ghosts in his gaze were that of the dead students laying slaughtered across the field.But now she knew the inky eyes of the boy in her vision haunted his heart instead. 

She softened her features, letting compassion swallow her anger.

“You failed him by assuming his choice had already been made.”She held the tucked hem of the blanket as she squatted down in front of her mentor.“It wasn’t…it still isn’t. I have felt the conflict in him, his humanity fighting for control. Ben is still in there.I’ve seen it.Just tonight, when we…”She stopped herself before she said ‘were together’, knowing that would not help the situation to remind him of what he’d seen them doing.Especially not when she was still wrapped in only a soggy blanket. ”…when we touched, I saw his future.” 

_Our future_ , she wanted to say.For that’s exactly what it had been. 

The images the Magix had shown her— human Ben and her together.That was the future that awaited them, if only she had enough courage to reach for it.“I saw just the shape of it, but as solid and clear as I’m seeing you.If I go to him now, the dragon will fall and the crown prince will rise.”

Sir Luke dropped his gaze and pressed his eyes together.In exhaustion?In unbelief? He must have hidden his aura from her because she couldn’t sense his emotions like she had with the Queen.

“Rey…”

“Don’t you see?” she said, standing.“This could be how we win the war…how we defeat the Order.”

A lightness rose in her heart and a small smile curved her mouth.If she could bring him back, then maybe all was not lost.Maybe _he_ was not lost. 

No matter what, the vision she’d seen demanded that she at least try. 

When she looked down at her mentor, the pitying look he set upon her nearly made her heart sink.

“This is not going to go the way you think, Rey.Trust me.”His tone was soft again, as it had been during that first lesson.It mocked her sincerity.

But she refused to be angry with him anymore.If he truly believed that she should be pitied for trying to save the man inside the monster, as he once did, then he was more lost to himself than Ben was. 

Rey plucked Sahar from its place and held the hilt out to him, one final chance to take up the hero mantle and set things right. 

He stared at the glowing weapon, shame still rimming his eyes.And when he turned his head away in refusal, she knew what she had to do.Though, she wasn’t sure entirely how.

“Then he is our last hope,” she said.She turned from Sir Luke and headed back to her hut to collect her things.This place no longer held anything she needed. 

After several steps, she pivoted back to address the old Knight.”You should know he didn’t kill them — the other students.The Squires of Enn did.”

He blinked rapidly and looked away from her.But she had already seen the regret welling in his eyes. 

As Rey stuffed her sodden belongings into her pack and slugged it over her shoulder, stuffing wet feet into wet boots, she was already practicing her speech to convince Chewie of her plan. 

Setting out through the drenched terrain towards The Falcon, she thought about the boy from her vision.The one with the blue eyes.And she smiled into the rain.

“I’m coming, Ben.I’m coming.”


	11. Belly of the Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey flies to Ben to free him from his Master. But Ben isn't so sure she's strong enough.

*The wind stung her face as the ventral sails of The Falcon billowed out into the sky over what Chewie said were the Crait Mountains.She stood on the bow looking out over the sea of drifting clouds, her aura stretched out for the person she’d been seeking since she left Ahch-To — and Sir Luke — behind. 

Ben’s aura usually held a chaotic, intense energy, but since their time in the hut, his presence comforted her with a gentleness that would have been surprising if not for their time spent together.Rey longed to be in his arms again, no matter that she would be heading straight into the very heart of enemy territory.If she went with him, she wouldn’t be afraid.

When she’d trudged through the rain back to The Falcon just four days ago, Chewie had greeted her above deck and ushered her directly into the warm, dry captain’s quarters, baying and roaring at her with concerned questions.Once she’d changed into dry clothes, she’d sat Chewie down and told him everything that had been happening with Ben on the island.

Well, almost everything.She wanted to keep some moments just between her and Ben.

But to the yeti’s credit, he had sat in silence and let her talk about her experience and her feelings —- and her plan.Of course, Chewie protested.He’d made the point that Ben was dangerous and unpredictable, citing what happened to Han as an example. But while Rey understood this all too well, she’d also seen the man inside the dragon and knew he was worth fighting for, the way Han had known.And she’d said as much to Chewie.She had expected him to get cross with her — to yell and refuse to take her to Ben at all. 

But to her surprise, after taking a few moments to think by himself, the yeti told her he understood and agreed to her plan.There had been a sheen of emotion in his steely eyes and while she didn’t dare ask about it, she had a feeling it had been about Han and the little boy with black hair that he’d once loved.It was only an assumption but she could imagine just how much Chewie had cared for his friend’s son, once upon another life. 

And perhaps that’s why he’d let her do this — let her go on this mission to try to free Ben from the Darkness. 

There was one other thing she’d done before she had left Ahch-To.She thought that she didn’t need anything from that mystical island anymore.But on her way back to the airship, she’d heard the ghostly voices of the sacred tree calling out to her again, drawing her.On some instinct, she knew she couldn’t just leave those ancient Guild texts there to rot away with Sir Luke and his determination to bury the Knighthood forever. 

She’d asked Chewie to swing the airship by the eastern shore, when the rain had subsided, so she could retrieve them.She wrapped the texts and manuscripts carefully in a leather sack and lugged them aboard.

Despite their fragile state, they now sat in the captain’s deck library, intact and safe.Whatever they contained, the Knighthood would live on in their writings. 

A strong wash of Ben’s aura radiated over her and faintly, she heard the rumbling roar of a dragon through the rush of the wind.She grinned. 

He’d felt her nearby.And he’d come looking for her.Apparently, he was too impatient to wait the few miles that separated them. 

It didn’t matter.This was what she planned anyway.Whether she surrendered to the Order now or later was just a technicality. 

She raced across The Falcon to the helm where Chewie navigated the old airship with the ease of a seasoned sailor. 

“Ben’s senses me and he’s coming for me. Now’s, the time,” she said. Chewie notched the stopper into the wheel and followed Rey to the deck railing.His eyes were soft as he placed a huge, reassuring hand on her shoulder. 

His words to her came in a gentle, trilling bay. 

“I know.But I promise, I’ll be fine.Ben won’t hurt me and he won’t let anything happen to me. I trust him.I know it doesn’t make sense…it wouldn’t have made sense to me either. But I know it.Have faith in him.Ben is still in there.”

The yeti gave her a sceptical look but didn’t argue.She smiled at him, for trusting her and being there for her among other things, and wrapped her arms around his furry body in a hug.He didn’t protest.Instead, he held her tight and patted her head. 

The dragon’s roar rumbled again, closer.

She let go of Chewie and leaned her back against the railing.He handed her Sahar, sheathed in a scabbard that strapped on her back and a cloak to conceal it. Not that Ben wouldn’t find it eventually, but she didn’t want to alarm him right from the start. 

“Well, wish me luck,” she said, taking a deep breath.Tendrils of her loose hair lashed against her face.“How do I look?”She opened her arms and did a slow turn in front of the yeti.

She had picked out an outfit she’d found in one of the cargo crates in the hold.The grey tunic was like ones she had worn in Jakku, except the sleeves were longer and draped out to the elbow before tapering into a snug band around her forearms and wrists. The leather doublet overtop had been pressed to look like roan-dyed scales, the hem brushing just at the top of her thighs. 

She’d also found a roll of thin fabric the colour of fog and it reminded her of the traditional Jakkuan wraps that had been a part of her identity since she was a child. She’d immediately adorned herself in the fabric, crossing and draping it around her as she had done for a decade. 

Everything fit her slightly too large, including the stiff leather boots.But she’d belted and adjusted the garments to suit her well enough.

Chewie let out a roar of approval and nodded emphatically.Rey smiled.He’d always been so kind to her when she needed it the most.

“What was it again the Knights used to say as a farewell?” she asked him.

His answer came with shining moisture in his eyes. 

“Right!May the Magix be with you. Always.”She hoisted herself up onto the rail and wiggled back, preparing to fall.“Oh!And one more thing.If you manage to get a message to the Uprising, please leave a note just for Finn.Tell him…tell him..”

Chewie finished her thought with a sentimental response, which was fitting. She’d certainly come to think of Finn as family, anyways.

“Yes, that’s perfect.”Her look on him was soft. “Thank you, Chewie.For everything.” 

His response made her remember what Captain Han had said to her weeks ago, when he’d mentioned that Chewie was beginning to like having her around.

“Of course I’ll be coming back!This isn’t a forever goodbye, don’t worry. Hopefully, I’ll be coming back with Ben too. But I just wanted you to know how grateful I am…you know…just in case.”

The yeti patted her shoulder and nodded.The look he gave her almost made her tear up.She shoved down the emotion.Rey needed her head clear and focused if she was going to succeed in her mission.While she knew Ben wouldn’t harm her, she was certain that the Sovereign Liege would. And Snoke was a foe that even Sir Luke feared to face. 

She nodded back to Chewie and smoothed her features into a calm, serene mask.With a deep breath, she leaned back over the railing, the wind and clouds embracing her in a misty chill.

As The Falcon’s wooden bottom grew smaller above her, the call of the dragon peeled through the air, close enough that it rattled her eardrums.She reached out her aura for his and when she found it, she knew exactly what to do. 

Rey tucked in her arms and rolled her body so that she faced the snowy peaks of the mountains below. Then she waited. 

And waited. 

Finally as the details of the mountain ridges were growing sharper, a great shadow rose up under the broken clouds beneath her, and as she passed through the nimbus mist, a gust of dark magic wrapped around her and eased her fall, so that when she landed on the dragon’s scaly, muscular back, the impact was gentle —

— or at least as gentle as a sudden stop could be.

The heat of the dragon’s body seeped into her skin and though it was hard at first to keep from rolling off, she managed to grip hold of his wings and pull herself further up his back.He banked slightly and Rey tensed, fearing she’d lose balance.But after a few moments, she realized he was drifting on a thermal, soaring in circles so the movement of his wings wouldn’t jar her. 

He was giving her an opportunity. 

Once she had gotten to his long, spiny neck, she wrapped her arms around it and kicked up her legs so that she straddled his shoulders.This gave her the stability to sit up slightly after she had notched her heels into the crook of his powerful front legs.It was only then that the dragon began beating his wings again and when she was sure she wouldn’t fall off, she brushed her palm over the warm scales of his neck.

A deep, throaty rumble vibrated through him in response and Rey smirked, the wind tearing through her hair and streaming it out behind her like a banner. 

The feeling of flying, unencumbered by a vessel, was the most freeing experience of her life.She wondered if her own dragon magic would ever be focused enough that she could fly as Ben did.And despite the part of her that knew she shouldn’t want such things, she longed to roam the skies with him. 

*Not long after, with the dragon’s speed being far faster than an airship, a scene blotted the horizon ahead that made Rey suck in a breath.

Looming like a great beast over the mountain peaks, a black airship with blood red sails pursued a rebel vessel.The Uprising ship’s orange hull and white balloon were covered in soot and a huge chunk of the forecastle had been blasted away. She noticed that it was also losing altitude.If it didn’t get more hot air into it’s balloon, it would scrape against the peaks and be ripped apart in a matter of hours. 

She hoped Finn and the Queen weren’t on it. 

Suddenly, a wave of dark magic rippled down the dragon’s back and she reacted a second too late before the scaly body burst into a cloud of thick, black smoke. 

Rey plummeted, feeling her stomach flop helplessly inside her. 

Then she jolted, her head snapping back with an uncomfortable crunch.Broad, human hands gripped under her legs and around her ribs and once the air came back into her lungs, she looked up into Ben’s handsome face. The muscles in his jaw flexed from clenching his teeth and worry flooded his aura, his lips a thin line.He searched her face for signs of pain but all she could do was stare at him. 

A flash of memory streaked across her mind — Ben’s bare chest, his hands roaming her body, his lips at her neck — and she went hot all over.She didn’t bother to hide her flush or the emotions she knew flooded through her aura.And Ben didn’t hide his from her either.She rested her hand on his chest and the rhythm of his wing beats faltered just enough that they swayed sharply down. 

Instead of fear, Rey just smirked. She’d never admit it, but it was a thrill having that kind of power over someone so feared by the rest of the world. 

As he corrected his flying, a glint of light pulled her attention up to the top of his head.

Her smile slowly neutralized. 

His black horns, curling in long, elegant spirals, had come back, and while she had known deep down that whatever magic had tamed those aspects of the dragon back in the hut were not permanent — the solution to his curse would not be that simple — she had hoped that maybe he had regained even a small portion of his humanity back that night.Perhaps the mark it had left laid deeper than could be seen.Like a seed.

A seed of hope.

After this, Rey settled comfortably in Ben’s embrace, feeling the tension in his arms and shoulders grow as they got closer and closer to the Order’s massive frigate.When he finally glided down for a landing on the coal-coloured deck, she tensed, expecting to be jostled and rattled by the impact. But it did not come.Instead, he held her close and lighted on the deck with no less grace than if he were merely taking a step down a stair. His boots thumped heavy on the wooden planks and after a few steps, he stopped. 

She looked up at him.His eyes were transfixed on her again, his gaze slow and meandering like the hot touch of skin on skin.

“You’re alright?” he asked in a low tone that she was sure only she could hear.He tucked in his outstretched wings and they loomed above his shoulders like grand epaulets. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the people bustling around the deck — soldiers and officers going about their business as if their second-highest ranking member hadn’t just brought the enemy onboard. 

Carried in his arms.

Rey nodded her response. 

Immediately and with great care, Ben set her down on the deck and straightened.Her cloak had strewn sideways during the plummet and she saw his eyes flick to something behind her.Perhaps it had torn or frayed.Confusion and fear edged his aura before he pulled it back from her and hid it away.She furrowed her brow and tilted her head as if to ask him what was wrong.

Then she saw them.

Four soldiers, dressed in burnished black and red, had gathered behind Ben.And one of them held shackles. 

She swallowed and for the first time since the hut, fear creeped into her limbs and made her heart thrash in her chest.But when she looked to Ben, his dark eyes were steady on hers, almost pleading for her to understand something that he couldn’t communicate. 

She had no idea what it was but she decided not to let her fear sway her from her mission.The man inside the monster would not be lost.Not as long as she drew breath. 

The soldiers surrounded her and Ben made no move to stop them.They clasped the cold shackles around her wrists, being very mindful that they were not too tight, she noticed.When they were done, they took their place behind him and he stepped forward, reaching a gloved hand behind her.She felt him slide Sahar from its sheath and she remembered now that she still had it. 

His expression was unreadable as he examined his family’s legacy in his hands.It was probably the sunlight glaring off the steel, but she could have sworn she saw the faintest glow radiating from the blue blade. 

Ben puffed out his chest and looked down at her with the same arrogant smirk he had on his face when she challenged him in the dungeon. 

“You should have known better than to bring a weapon to your surrender.And here I thought you had nothing to hide.”His words would have sounded condescending and mocking to everyone else.But she heard the playful tone behind it.So she went along. 

“I don’t have anything to hide. If I recall, you said this sword belonged to you.But then again,I _had_ hit my head pretty hard that night.”She raised her brow and shot him a pointed look.He didn’t flinch, but a softness came into his gaze, though the rest of him remained the perfect image of a dark, cold dragon prince. 

“I did,” he replied. 

“Then I’m simply returning it to you, aren’t I?” 

His smirk deepened ever so slightly.“Come with me, sandlark. The Sovereign Liege is waiting.”

Weeks ago, that term had filled her with shame and hurt when he’d spoken it over her. But she knew it was a term he had reserved for the scavenger girl who was his enemy.Rey was not that person anymore and even now, while the word had rolled off his tongue again, she sensed there was an air of pretence about it. As if it had been in performance. 

Though, since he had hidden his aura from her, she wasn’t sure whether his act was to convince the crew or himself of their enmity.

Ben took hold of her upper arm and led her towards a tall, skeletal booth mounted into the deck.Lanterns hung from iron rings inside it and as he brought her inside, she realized it was a lift. 

She’d only seen the remains of lifts inside the larger of the battleships ruined in the desert dunes.Never fully functional and so elaborately designed in aesthetic as this one.Most airships didn’t need them, but the ones that did were so massive that they had taken years to construct and get airborne. 

Ben turned them around inside the lift so that they faced out at the deck and its inhabitants.Two crewmen started turning a crank at Rey’s right side and slowly, the lift began to descend down into the dark belly of the vessel. 

\-----------------

*As the lift lowered foot by foot, Ben stared straight ahead, lost in the waves of his own thoughts. 

He had to get it together before they faced his Master or Lord Snoke would sense his intentions.And that would end in complete, horrific disaster.But even if he did hide his plans from the Sovereign Liege, how was he going to destroy him?Between the magic-resistant guards and Snoke’s own great power, there was little room for margin. He had to work it out fast. 

But he knew it wouldn’t be fast enough.

No matter what, he would not waver in his resolve, regardless of what it cost him.Snoke would use Rey to get what he wanted and break her to pieces when she became useless.Ben would spill as much blood as he needed to keep Rey from that fate, even if it was his own. 

Her voice in the small space pulled him out of his head. 

“You don’t have to do this, you know. You don’t have to _be_ this.”Her words came softly, almost entreating.She didn’t look away from the lift’s entrance, it’s open arch passing level after level of pristine decks filled with busy crew. None of them paid the lift any attention as it descended. 

She turned her head, then, to speak to him over her shoulder, the lamplight catching the copper pieces of her chestnut strands as she moved. 

She looked good with her hair loose like that, cascading down her back in a scented waterfall of sunshine and rain.He should tell her that when all this was over. 

“I sense the storm inside of you…and that conflict is tearing you apart,” she said. 

He wanted to huff in dark amusement. 

Though she was right about the storm raging within him, for the first time since the dungeon, his human heart and his dragon nature were in perfect accord.The conflict that she felt stemmed from his struggle to control his feelings for her.To shove them down and seal them off from his Master’s penetrating mind.It was his only shot for hiding what he planned. 

No hint of betrayal could be found in him if they both were going to make it out of that state room alive. 

Even now, he could feel the heavy, suffocating mantle of his Master’s aura seeping into the lift. 

“Ben.”

He’d heard her call him by his name — his birth name — before, in the hut. But the word still struck through him, a jolt that ripped him away from every other thought.It echoed in him, banging through the halls of his soul like a madman looking for shelter, and it disturbed the rhythm of his breathing. 

He blinked and pulled his stare from the lift’s entrance.Rey gazed up at him with her honey eyes, the slightest hint of emerald in their centre.They were determined and unafraid and full of only him in a way that left him unsettled. 

Yet he couldn’t help swallowing when she stepped close to him and placed her bound hands around his arm.

“Just come home,” she breathed.“Run away with me, right now.Leave all this behind you.”

He would have smirked if he had not known that she was deeply, deathly serious. 

Even after everything she had learned about him, did she still think he had the choice to go back?That a Dragon Lord would ever be accepted into the Uprising now that his parents were both gone? 

Worst of all, did she really think that _she_ would find acceptance there after they knew about her dragon magic?It would only be a matter of time before it would manifest again in front of those she considered friends.And it would not end well for her. 

He reigned in his aura as much as he could even as her touch pleaded for him to listen. Now was not the time for this conversation. 

“I won’t be seduced by the Light,” he said flatly, though the words came out weak and thin. 

Rey raised her eyebrows. “I think it’s a little late for that mantra, don’t you?” 

The hint of a smile ghosted at the edges of her lips and he couldn’t help but gaze at them, remembering how they tasted on his tongue. 

“You won’t bow before Snoke,” she said.A cocky tilt of her head emphasized the smile.“When we touched, I saw your future.Solid and clear.It was beautiful.” She searched his face, dropping her eyes down to his mouth and back up again.Her stare begged him to take her in his arms and damn the consequences.She leaned closer and whispered. “You’ll turn…I’ll help you.”

Ben swallowed, trying to suppress the hunger that welled up inside him.He had to remember where they were — where they would soon be.If all went well and they survived the danger of the next few minutes,he’d have all the time he wanted later to devour her, heart and body and soul. 

He kissed her forehead, taking in the scent of her.

“I saw something too,” he said, his voice low and soft.Images paraded through his consciousness like a celebration.Like Rey, he had also been shown her future in that instant that their hands had touched. 

A red dais set in a white room, Rey clad in black and draped over his lap as he lounged in a golden throne. Crowns and horns upon their heads, her gilded dragon’s gaze staring at him from across his vision.His hands resting on her legs. Her arm lifted above her to enfold locks of his hair.

He brought his gloved hand to this Rey’s face, trailing down her neck to stroke her tresses as he spoke.His voice was barely above a whisper. 

“Because of what I saw, I know that when the moment comes, you’ll be the one to turn. You'll stand with me. Fight with me. Stay with me.”

They stood so closely now that they shared each other’s breath, their lips near enough to touch.Rey had a sleepy, dazed look about her, as her aura billowed around him with so much desire that Ben jabbed his talons into the palm of his hand to keep his focus. 

She acted like she had no idea how much peril she was in, and while her fearless resolve was admirable, it would also get her killed.One of them had to maintain clarity. 

But all he wanted was to give in — to let her drag him under and drown in her embrace.

“I…” she started. But the lift jolted then, signalling that they had reached the bottom, where a beast greater than he lay in wait. 

He parted the familiar red curtains that separated the lift from the passageway to his Master’s state room. But before he ushered Rey out of the lift, he faced her, sliding the back of his finger down her cheek. 

“Rey,” he said. “I saw your parents.”

For the Magix had not only shown him her future, but part of her past as well. He’d seen her parents holding her in their arms as they carried her down the gangplank of a scruffy cargo ship.He’d watched as they put her down in front of a large, greasy merchant and take the money he offered them.Their stoic faces were cold as they walked away from her crying form and boarded their ship without a second glance. 

Nothing he could see or sense about them suggested that they descended from royalty.No article of clothing, no royal air in the hold of their jaws. No magic.Nothing. 

They were nothing. 

Rey was not the Heir of the Emperor.And something about that had relieved him and disappointed him all at once. 

Her stunned gaze fixed on him and he could hear her heart thrashing in her chest.He knew she wanted to ask him about them.To find out the answer to her greatest question. But it would have to wait. 

Already, he felt the tug of the summons reaching for him and he knew what Snoke’s impatience would bring. 

He sealed his aura under a cloak of pure Darkness, letting the dragon rise to the surface to hide what treason lay in his human heart.Rey’s instant confusion and doubt stung like a blow but he needed that from her now.To sell his deception.The less she trusted him, the better.Snoke would sense it and use it to grow his ego into a weapon that Ben could utilize. 

If only he could figure out how he was going to do it. 

As he grasped Rey’s arm and led her forward down the passage, he thought of the strange image of her in his vision — of her child self.Her teary eyes looking into him. The desert fading to black until it was only her left.Her haircoming undone in waves that adult Rey didn’t possess.Her honey and emerald gaze turning dark as burnt cedar — like his mother’s. 

He didn’t know what her change meant, but he trusted that the Magix would reveal it in time. 

For now, he had a dark mage to kill. 


	12. Long Live the Liege

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey is taken to Snoke for questioning and she quickly wonders if Ben will betray her.

*Ben’s walls rose up around him, letting the dragon shut Rey out like the snap of a hunting snare. His serious expression hardened into a mask of calm, impassive ice.The fire in his veins flared, lighting up his pale skin with fine, orange lines that spidered up and across his neck and jaw.His eyes remained human, for now, but a dull distance had claimed his stare, almost as if he had retreated deep inside. 

He gripped her elbow brusquely and pulled her down the long hall, loosening his grip when she winced.At the end of the passage, a large door loomed black before them, intricate runes embossed in gold into the woodwork.She couldn’t help but think of how much a door like that would fetch at the marketplace in Jakku — how much so many of the unnecessary details would sell for in this whole gargantuan ship. 

But the when the door opened and she saw beyond it, all thoughts of her previous profession evaporated from her mind. 

The state room was cold and bare but also decedent in a way that spoke of arrogance and ruthless pride.Tapestries the colour of dark blood hung floor to ceiling against the inky walls and while there didn’t seem to be any portholes or windows in the room, multiple ornate lanterns burned steadily between the red drapings and reflected off the polished marble floors.Eight of the same red-armoured guards as she had seen in the Fortress were stationed around the room, each with a different, bladed weapon. 

Directly before them, at the opposite end of the large room, sat the Sovereign Liege of the Order of Dragonfire, leaning leisurely to one side of his plush, mahogany throne. He clothed himself in the finest gold silks Rey had ever seen that fell to his feel like a glittering robe.But all of the rich finery did nothing to bring any semblanceof beauty to him.A deformed, grotesque face protruded from a bulbous, lob-sided head, pale and deeply scarred. His scalp was devoid of any hair at all, except on his brows, and a cruel and gleeful smile crossed his misshapen visage. 

It seemed as if he were a corpse feigning life by some darkest, despicable magic, and she hesitated to move forward into the room as Ben tugged her along. She tore her eyes away from the vile being in front of her long enough to look up at Ben — to see if some secret reassurance would come from him.But he did not look at her. 

The Sovereign Liege let out a chilling chuckle.“Well done, my good and loyal squire,” he called out.Ben gave her a small shove forward when she wouldn’t move any closer and when he released her, he immediately dropped to one knee and bowed his head in submission to his master. 

Rey’s heart pounded a frantic rhythm in her ears, her uneven, quiet breaths amplified in the empty room. 

_You won’t bow before Snoke.You’ll turn…I’ll help you._

Somehow the words took on the feel of daggers in her mind and she forced herself to tune them out — to ignore whatever strange strategy she was sure Ben was playing. 

He had to be.

She refused the alternative; it made her feel sick just thinking it was an option. 

“My faith in you has been restored,” Snoke continued, deathly gladness still dripping in his voice.Then he turned his frost-blue eyes onto her.“Ah, the young Knight in training.My deepest welcome,” he purred.

At that moment, his smile widened into a grin that immediately reminded her of a desert cat about to pounce on its prey.

The shackles rattled as they fell from her wrists and clattered sharply on the marble floor.She took a deep breath and glared at her enemy as she rubbed at her wrists.

“Come closer, child.”His silky charm was lost in the mocking of his expression. 

She planted herself in spite, holding her glower.But a wave of dark magic permeated the room like the stench of death and reached for her aura before she could retreat it. 

“Ah, such strength in you.The Darkness rises and the Light to meet it.”He made a gesture like the balancing of merchant scales. “I told my young squire that as his power in the Darkness grew…that as the dragon became stronger, his equal in the Light would rise up to slay him.As is the way of balance in the Sacred Magic.”He laughed in amusement and she saw him reach out. Sahar hurdled through the room and into his gnarled grasp, hilt first.“Though, I assumed it would be Skywalker…wrongly.”

He set the Sword carefully on the marble table next to his throne and paused, staring at Rey with thin veiled impatience.He leaned forward.

“I said _closer_.”

An iron grip of magic wrapped around her, stifling her own will and plucking her from her spot like she was no more than a flower.She felt the chill of fear leak into her limbs but did not let it show on her face.She refused to give this monster an ounce of satisfaction, even as he took away all her control. 

She had to trust her instincts — the whispers in her head that had been guiding her and showing her how to use her magic.And despite the scrape of doubt stinging in her heart, she had to trust Ben and all that she had seen in her visions. 

Rey set her jaw and strained, futilely, against Snoke’s power.“You underestimate Sir Luke.And Ben Solo…and _me,_ ” she said.She hovered face to face with the plague of the entire Kingdom now and her feet dangled above the floor.“It will be your downfall.”She raised her chin and looked down her nose at him, her nostrils flaring in contempt.

But the feigned shock that swept his malformed features made doubt icy in her veins. 

“Have you…have you found a _weakness_ in my squire?Is that why you surrendered?”His frost-eyes glimmered with mocking and he let out a cold laugh.“Has the little Dragonslayer fallen in love with her query?And the dragon with her?Young fool.It was _I_ who bridged your minds and your magic all along.”

Rey’s breath hitched and held and the world froze around her, a sharp hissing in her ears.It felt like Snoke had just plunged his hand inside her chest and ripped her heart from her body. 

\--------------------

The words were a blow that nearly toppled him.Ben flicked his downcast gaze at his Master, struggling to keep the pain from showing.He knew he should not have reacted to Lord Snoke’s statement at all, but he couldn’t help looking up to search for any hint of deceit in that grotesque face. 

He was lying.He had to be. Ben’s connection with Rey was raw and genuine and irrefutably _real_.The Sovereign Liege couldn’t have done such a powerful spell without him knowing it — or at least sensing it.Had he been so enamoured with Rey that he’d not been paying attention?Had everything he felt for her and everything he was sure she felt for him all simply been one dark, elaborate deception to get to his uncle? 

As he directed his stare back to the floor, his Master’s next words hammered in his suspicion like a weapon. 

“I stoked Kylor’s conflicted soul.Though he has tried to hide it from me for years, I knew he was not strong enough…or smart enough…to try and hide it from you.”At this, he gave a rumbling sinister chuckle that Ben had always hated. “And you, my pretty pet, were not wise enough to resist the bait.”

Lord Snoke’s chuckle faded and in its place, a perilous growl grew.He felt both the terror and the physical pain in Rey as, from the corner of his vision, he saw his Master reach out and grasp her face in his steely, nobbled fingers.Ben’s nostrils flared and his fists clenched at his side.

“You will surrender Skywalker to me and then, I will take great pleasure in killing you with the _cruelest_ stroke,” he spat in pure, raw loathing.

As Ben felt her physical pain increase — apparently another trait of their bond — he sensed Rey reaching out for him with her aura.It was like a shaft of sunlight beaming through the heavy darkness of Snoke’s presence.He allowed her to feel only the smallest hint of his own aura, the unity and resolve that had quieted the storm inside of him.Immediately, worry and sadness flooded through their connection. 

Good. If she doubted him, his Master would feel it and solidify his false sense of victory.Ben just had to wait for the right moment and Snoke would hand him the means for his own demise. 

Rey’s aura retreated from him and he heard the ice in her voice when she spoke. 

“No”

Snoke gave wistful sigh, the kind that Ben had heard every time he had disappointed the Sovereign Liege.The kind that meant pity for the magic and power that would be wasted with her death.

“ _Yes_ ,” Snoke growled and flung Rey into the middle of the room, pinned several feet from the ground by his magic.“Give me _everything_.”

It took nearly all of Ben’s concentration not to wince or flinch at the cleaving agony that raged through his head.He knew what Snoke was doing to Rey and he fought to control the fury and panic quaking through his body. 

He felt it as the Sovereign Liege tore through hermental fortitude one barrier at a time, any attempts she made to stop it subdued under his savage quest.She had faced this kind of interrogation before, but Ben had been purposeful in causing as little harm as possible when searching for her memories.But Snoke cared nothingfor how much pain or damage he caused in the wake of the cyclone that flung around the fragments of Rey’s mind, searching for what he wanted. 

Ben snapped a glare at Snoke so poisonous that he hoped the malformed monster would die where he sat.But he didn’t even look at Ben as he continued his attack on Rey.She convulsed and shook with the torture, gritting her teeth so tightly that her jaw bulged with strain.Then, as the pain grew to blinding in his head, he heard his name ring through the room in a scream that frosted his blood. 

Something ripped open in him that he didn’t realize he possessed: a hatred so pure and uncomplicated that his entire being became calm and utterly still.No hidden worry or fear or panic.Just deathly serenity that sharpened his focus like a whet stone on a dagger blade.He thought, for a fleeting, intense moment, of rising to his feet and engulfing the whole room in flames.He would enjoy watching the Sovereign Liege incinerated to ash at his feet.He remained kneeling.

But Snoke _would_ die today, even if he had to rip the monster’s throat out with his teeth.Even if it was the last thing Ben ever accomplished in his miserable life. 

With a sadistic laugh, Snoke released Rey, letting her drop to the floor, a discarded doll.She looked fragile and weary and Ben fought the urge to go to her.To scoop her up in his arms and never let anyone harm her ever again.But he remained silent and still, knowing his opportunity was coming. That their freedom was close.

“Well, well, well!” Snoke hissed in his twisted glee. “I did not expect Skywalker to be such a wise old sage.I will bring him and the Knighthood the death he wishes! After the Uprising is extinguished and every last rebel is snuffed out, we will sail the over sea and destroy the entire island in fire and smoke.A fitting end to the Dragonslayer legacy.”

Ben knew he was talking about the dragon — his pet to destroy as he commanded.But Ben would do no one’s biding now, least of all his.Soon, Snoke would knowwhat that destruction felt like first hand. 

\-------------------

No. 

She couldn’t let that happen.She couldn’t let Sir Luke and all the Caretakers be slaughtered.She knew she hadn’t willingly betrayed them and yet that thought did nothing to ease the slash of guilt inside her. 

Exhausted and nauseous in ways she had never been before, Rey pushed herself to sit up, her head throbbing so badly that dark spots blotted her vision.She staggered to her feet and thrust her aching arm out, pulling Sahar to her with her magic.It flew from its place on the table beside Snoke and she knew in less than a second that she could get in a killing blow before he had even known what she’d done. 

The hilt was nearly in her grasp when a stronger power ripped the Sword from her control and she watched in confusion as it sailed passed her.She followed it with her sight and saw that Ben shifted out of its way effortlessly, eyes cast to the floor, as it arced around him. Rey turned to see where Sahar had gone and something metal cracked the back of her skull.She winced at the jolt to her already splitting headache and glared at Snoke, the Sword gliding right back onto the table beside him. 

He clucked his tongue. “Such a temper on one so small.Come, and see what your Sovereign Liege is doing.Perhaps then you’ll fetter that spark.”

Rey wanted to spit that he wasn’t her sovereign _anything_ , but his magic gripped her in the same iron vice as before and dragged her to a tapestry on the other side of the room.It rolled up in an instant to reveal a large porthole.The sudden sunlight stabbed through her head and she blinked fiercely until her eyes adjusted.

A deep rumble exploded from several levels above them and she knew, without much thought, what it was.

Cannon fire. 

Through the porthole, she saw a flock of giant eagles soaring straight for a valley in the mountain peaks.Another cannon fired and she watched the burning ball hurdle towards an eagle at the edges of the flock. It tried to swerve but it was too late.

The great bird sputtered in the air and curled in upon itself as it dropped out of the sky.Rey’s breath caught when she saw the small silhouettes of two humans separate from the shadow of the eagle, their arms and legs flailing helplessly as they followed the dying bird down in a plummet. 

She could almost hear their screaming.

“That is the Uprising fleeing from their demise like the vermin that they are. They thought I wouldn’t detect their summoning spell from inside their shield, but they were naive in underestimating the power of the Darkness.Soon, they will all be exterminated and crushed under my heel.”

The horror of that revelation made her limbs go cold and prickly. 

Finn.Poe.The Queen.

They were all somewhere amongst that flock and now they were in absolute peril.She may very well have just watched one of them die.Bile rose in her throat and burned the back of her tongue.But something else rose up as well.

“For you, little Dragonslayer, all hope is lost,” Snoke crooned. 

His grasp on her relinquished and she slumped against the port hole, staring out at the flock with rage welling up inside her.She turned, her feet feeling heavy as boulders, and looked desperately to Ben, willing him to see her — to feel her plea for help.But he sat silent and submissive on bended knee before the grinning beast that was murdering her friends for pleasure. 

If Ben would not come to her aid then she would have to rely on herself.

A searing-hot fire burst into her veins and her eyes burned so badly that involuntary tears of fury streamed down her face.She felt the heaviness of her wings as they sprouted from her back and flared out behind her in threat.She flung out her power and yanked Ben’s sabre hilt from his belt, the black and gold steel warm in her grasp. 

Snarling, she funnelled her fury into the hilt and it burst to life in her hand, the blazing column oddly comforting.Like it had always belonged to her.

All eight praetorian guards immediately took a defensive stance around their liege as he cackled in delight. 

“Oh be still, that fiery spit of hope!” he mocked.“You have the spirit of a _true_ Knight, no doubt.” 

She didn’t care if he was right to mock her — a scavenger with dragon magic trying to become a Knight.She would use whatever she needed to defeat him and let the Light reign, even if it meant using the dragons power inside her. 

With a savage cry, she brandished the roaring blade and surged towards Snoke and his smug, amused grin.She’d burn him alive for everything he’d done. 

As if she had slammed into a stone wall, Rey’s charge cut short only a couple of feet from where Snoke sat.She reeled back at the force of the impact, sending both her and the extinguished sabre hilt skidding at Ben’s feet.Instantly, she lost her control over the dragon magic and felt it fade from her body. 

Panting in great breaths, she blinked back tears of fury, boiling and stinging her watery vision.If Ben would not help her, then perhaps they were both lost.

\------------------

The blackened hilt spun around in circles before him.He watched it, numb and detached, as his weapon slowed it’s velocity and Rey’s exhausted breathing filled his ears. 

A thought sliced through his mind like the sting of an arrow — an idea so outrageously dangerous and brilliant, he was sure his father’s eyes would have lit up with reckless glee. Ben flicked his gaze discreetly passed Rey’s frustrated, toppled form to the marble table next to Snoke’s throne. The Sovereign Liege was too steeped in his own arrogance and victory games and he didn’t once look at Ben. 

A steel edge of clarity and confidence solidified in his mind.If Snoke wanted a loyal and obedient pet, then that is exactly what he was going to get.And then it would be too late for the Sovereign Liege to save himself. 

All Ben had to do now was surrender to the dragon and hope Rey would still trust him in the end. 

\------------------

“No, you would not make a good Squire of Dragonfire either.And for that, my pet, you must die,” Snoke said, his voice dripping with venom. 

The cruel grip of his dark magic crushed her again, hauling Rey to her knees and turning her to face Ben.For the first time since they had entered the state room, their eyes met.She felt it now, even as her hope drowned under the blank expression that had wiped the vulnerability from his gaze. 

The dragon had won. 

Glowing red peered back her and dragon magic, black and powerful, radiated off of him like an invisible inferno.His aura crackled through the room — wild, unseen lightning, raising the hairs on her arms. 

Never had she been more terrified of him than she was now.

“My worthy squire, Son of Darkness, Sole Heir of the Great Shadow Dragon.Where there was conflict, I sense resolve.Where there was weakness, I sense strength.”The growl in Snoke’s voice rang viciously through the state room.“Complete your training and fulfill — your — _destiny_!” 

Ben picked up the sabre hilt and rose to his feet, unfurling his magnificent wings wide so that it cast a shadow over Rey’s vision.All she could see was him.

He did not relinquish his stare and she could have sworn she saw a strange look of pleading there in his blank, obedient expression.But it passed in a blink and his dragon magic rose to engulf her. 

“I know what I have to do,” he said.The words had been soft and almost tender in a way that completely confused her. 

Her breath shuddering from adrenaline and strain, shecreased her brows.Wasn’t he supposed to turn sides?Weren’t they supposed to have a future with one another?Had the Sacred Magic lied to her all along?

“Ben?” she whispered.She couldn’t hide her fear any longer.Nor did she want to.Just a few days ago, they had lain naked in each other’s arms, baring their souls.And now — the Dragon Lord was truly going to kill her.She wanted to stand and jump into his arms.Wanted to plead with him not to give in, not to obey — to stay with her.He couldn’t betray her.Not like this.Anything but this.

The cruelest stroke, indeed.

Snoke’s low laugh reverberated through the large room. “How sweet!You think you can turn him.What a _pathetic_ child!It is I who cannot be betrayed.I cannot beaten.I see into his mind and I feel his every intent. Yes, I see him turning the sabre to strike true and final.”

Rey’s eyes flicked down and she saw Ben turning the sabre hilt to point directly at her.All he had to do was ignite the blade and she would die just like his father had. 

“And now, foolish little Dargonslayer, he lights the fires and kills his truest enemy!”

Snoke had barely finished speaking when she saw a small flick of Ben’s fingers out of the corner of her eye.And a loud gasp sounded behind her at the exact same moment.

At first, she thought Snoke had been surprised that Ben hadn’t yet lit his sabre blade.But with a jarring release, Rey toppled to the marble floor, suddenly free of the monster’s grip.Sweat dripped down her temples as a gurgling noise whipped her attention to the scene behind her. 

*The Sovereign Liege sat, mouth agape and frosty eyes wide, blood oozing down his throne and Sahar plungedup to the silver hilt into his side.A crimson stain grew across his golden robe. 

Rey let out the breath she had been holding as she looked from Ben to Snoke and back again.She blinked, wondering if in her fear, she’d hallucinated it.But the smell of blood stung her nostrils and Ben’s presence was too real to be imagined.The dragon’s red glow slipped out of his eyes, deep, warm brown greeting her with silent apology and affection.He reached out his aura for hers, like a caress.Then, he nodded his chin towards Snoke’s dying form and Rey twisted around to look. 

With a pained grunt, the Order’s Sovereign Liege jolted as Sahar cleaved him in two in one swift movement.The top half of his grotesque body slid from the bottom and squelched onto the pristine floor, panting and twitching. The praetorian guards finally understood what had happened and jumped to attention, rushing to Snoke’s side.

As they approached, Ben’s magic brought Sahar directly across the middle of the room and Rey raised herhand to catch hold of the blood-splattered hilt.She pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the shocked and angry shouts of the guards behind her, and turned to face Ben.

He had saved her.

He had been loyal to her this whole time and she had been a fool to ever doubt him.To ever doubt what they had experienced between them. And though she wasn’t entirely surely of everything that it was yet, she knew it had been strong enough to turn a dragon to the Light. 

In that moment, staring at him with awe and joy, she felt the dragon within her rise up and she wanted to devour ever clever, gorgeous inch of him until there was nothing left but a smirk.

And Ben’s gaze said that he wanted to do the same to her. 

But there was no time for that now.Ben moved his attention behind her and she looked over her shoulder.Snoke took one startlingly loud breath and then ceased all together, his heavy aura lifting from the room like a cloak.And once he stopped moving, the red guards acted on their loyalty, brandishing their weapons and marching forward upon Ben and Rey.

Within the circle of guards, they were trapped. There was only one solution and they both knew it. 

Gripping Sahar’s hilt tightly, she looked at Ben. His intensity flared along with the roaring column of Dragonfire he’d ignited from the sabre.It crackled and spit, ready to tear through their enemies at his hand. 

Then, as one, the dragon and dragonslayer turned to face the guards, their affection propelling them into the melee. Back to back, Rey and Ben lifted their blades in a blaze of blue and red, casting a purple haze through the torch-lit room.


	13. A Dance of Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben must fight their way out of the state room after Snoke's demise. Ben gives Rey a very tempting offer.

*The last things Ben saw before he whirled around to face his former master’s protectors were Rey’s gilded eyes and the wings that had sprouted again from her back.He let out a low growl and sneered at the guards that surrounded them, letting his eyes burn with the beast’s fiery glare.

Then, the battle engulfed them.

On instinct, he reached back for Rey’s arm and locked it in the crook of his.She bent her elbow, strengthening the grip and together they spun around, slashing out at their attackers in a graceful twirl of steel and fire.When they released each other, he raised his sabre above his head and brought it down in an elegant arc, slicing blackened wounds into two of the guards’ chests before they even lifted their weapons, blood and ash spraying across the floor.

Though Snoke had commissioned their armour be made out of basilisk scales — the only thing in the entire Kingdom that could deflect magic, it would not protect them from the physical force of Dragonfire nor the sharp power of a Sword of Light.And unfortunately for them, he’d been preparing for this battle for days, going over their attack formations and counter strikes again and again in his head to plan his strategy. 

He had to admit to himself that while the vision he had seen in the hut had felt right, he hadn’t been entirely sure that Rey would actually stand with him in the end.Now that she was fighting the guards along side him, drawing on her dragon magic and the shared memories of his training, Ben knew that Snoke’s servants would lose. 

He heard a guttural grunt beside him and saw Rey blocking the blow of a double-halbert as it sliced down towards him.She shoved the guard back as two more rushed him instantly.A blur of blue lightstreaked passed the corner of his vision and sunk into the torso of a third guard who tried to flank him while he was engaged.Blood flung from Sahar as she whipped around behind him again.

Ben locked blades with the spear of the first guard who rushed for him and when Ben shoved the attacker off his feet, he raised his sabre straight into the air for an executing blow to the other.As he brought down the roaring column of fire in a low, powerful swing, Rey reached back and used his thigh for leverage in fending off her own opponents, their wings bracing against each other.As if the touch of her hand against his body communicated something intrinsic between them, he shoved Rey up with his hip, utilizing the motion of his attack to propel her forward.He heard the impact of boots on armour and the winded gasp of the guard she fought. 

He felt it.The synchronization between them, as if he and Rey were each an extension of the other.A unified creature of fierce, thirsty war that would not be trifled with.A beautiful and terrifying flurry of wings and light and swords. 

And he had never felt so confident in his whole life. 

\------------------------

Like one weapon split to make two, she and Ben separated, dividing their efforts against the remaining guards. 

Rey knew exactly which one she wanted — the tall one with the segmented whip-sword.She didn’t think about what she was doing; she simply let her limbs respond to the dragon magic that flooded through her.Let the whispers in her mind and the instincts in her gut guide her movements and responses. 

Ever since the hut, she had felt her connection to Ben more deeply.Not only in emotions and thoughts but on a level that delved far beyond what lovers would share, as if she had remembered training she’d never received.It seemed as though whatever Ben had been taught of battle and magic now hummed in the muscles and sinews of her own body. 

The guard before her sailed his weapon around him like a wind-mill, the sound of it cutting through the room.Finally, it slashed her way and she blocked it, the force of it unbalancing it her. 

She flared her wings to steady herself and launched forward with a gritting growl. Their weapons collided with orange sparks as she yanked Sahar out from the bladed coils. 

The guard swerved behind her and she blocked over her head in time to catch his blow before it struck home.Clenching her jaw, she batted him hard with her wing as she swivelled around to face him. 

He rolled to recover and grappled his weapon around Sahar, using the leverage to haul himself back up.Tightly entangled now, Rey strained to resist as he pull her closer to the whips pointed tip. 

She waved her wings to counter his weight and pull herself free, but she felt her sword slipping from her clammy grasp.Grunting viciously against the strain, she allowed him to gain ground. 

He reeked of arrogance and Rey sneered as she felt the cold edge of the whip sword press against the skin of her chest. 

Then, she sensed the slightest release of his grasp in preparation to push the tip of his weapon through her heart.With a speed she didn’t know she possessed, she ducked under his arms, uncoiling Sahar, and slipped behind him to drive blade deep into his back. 

She heard him gasp in pain and shock and she let out a roaring war-cry, yanking the sword from his body. A hunk of his armour went flinging in a shower of blood behind her that spattered the guard Ben had kicked out of his own fight. 

In a moment, the bloodied guard raged towards her as the one she had killed sank to the floor with a clatter.He pulled apart his double-halbert, one spiked axe blade for each hand, and slammed both heads of the weapon hard against Sahar’s blue glow.

Over the guard’s shoulder, she caught a glimpse of Ben fighting and it drew her attention. 

Her dragon prince.

Her Ben. 

He had three guards in a low sword lock, his fire sabre blazing and crackling loudly in the centre. 

With one fluid movement, tucking his dark wings tightly against his broad, muscular body, he entangled their weapons and swept them upwards with such swiftness that they fell back away from the melee. 

Ben whirled around and plunged the sabre, hilt deep, into the staggering guard before him.The crackling column of fire retreated from where it had burst from the guard’s back as Ben flung the body off his weapon and into another guard. 

He was a terrifying, beautiful angel of death, dispatching his enemies with a dancing grace, both elegant and ferocious in equal parts. 

Rey caught herself smirking just as a searing pain tore through her upper arm and she slammed, face-first, into the hard marble floor.Her legs and breath had been knocked out from under her. 

Apparently the guard had taken advantage of her distraction.

She cursed under her breath and scrambled to her feet.

She dived back into the fray. 

\------------------------

Ben crouched low as he surveyed his prey down the roaring shaft of fire held between him and the two guards circling him like persistent vultures. He could sense their fear — smell it all over them — after the deadly show of skill and prowess he had demonstrated. He knew if they had not feared the Order more than death, they would surrender to him and run.He curled his lips in disgust, baring his teeth, the slight, dragonish points of his canines showing.

He could feel his dragon nature pushing and struggling inside him, restless to be set free — eager to destroy his enemies and reduce their bodies to ash and cinder.But though the state room rose cavernously around them, it would still be too small for his dragon form to roam loose.Not without damaging the ship, which was incredibly unwise even by his standards. 

Still, he used that cold rage and burning restlessness to stoke his skills and movements, a barely leashed creature of destruction.

It’s what he needed to be to get out of there alive.

He snarled at the guards, ready to let his savagery reign down upon them. 

Then, a searing pain welled up in his arm and the aggression faded from his face in an instant.He whipped his attention across the room in search of her.

In search of the one his soul belonged with.

His eyes settle on Rey’s form, lying prostrate on the floor, bleeding and gasping for breath.An icy wave of terror arrested his senses as he imagined what wound she had taken.He let out a small ragged exhale, his chest constricting with panic. 

She was everything.

And if she died right here in this fight, then…then there would be nothing left for him.

Not anymore.

Relief washed over him as he watched her golden dragon’s gaze look up at her opponent with blazing fury and launch herself at him.

She would be fine.Fierce and raging and glorious…but fine.And she would prevail.

The instinct to go to her, to protect her, overwhelmed him. But his senses reminded him that two guards still flanked him.He heard one of them shuffle closer and he snapped his attention away from Rey.

Focus.

Savagery would not win this.He had to rethink his battle plan.Think like them. 

He knew how his deceased liege trained his underlings.Knew their thought process and their moves and weaknesses. 

He lowered the sabre into a defensive stance as one of the guards released the cable of their whip-sword.Ben watched as he whorled it around in figure-eights like a writhing snake and Ben struck out at the guard in a flash of fire and brute strength.The guard dodged but the other one didn’t.A gaping, charcoal gash streaked across his red chest plate and he dropped to the floor. 

Movement at the corner of his vision alerted him to a third guard coming his way, probably just recovering from unconsciousness by the way he staggered as he charged forward. 

Both of them were after Ben now and he set his jaw, crouching to block the overhead blow that came swinging down on him.He caught the glaive’s blade inches from his neck and swung it away from him. 

He grabbed the guard before him and Ben thrust his fist into his helmet, the armour cracking under the strength of the impact and the hard plates of his scaled gauntlet.He gripped the guard’s shoulder and tossed him away into the room, the man flopping like a rag doll as he hit the ground. 

Ben swivelled around, wings tucked close, to face the other guard.The dent in his helmet told him that this one had already had a hard enough hit to keep him slightly disoriented. Ben kicked out at him and brought the sabre down with a flourish.

The guard dodged bringing his broken halbert around in a side swipe. 

Ben countered it with a grunt and their weapons clashed, over and over, sweat pouring down his neck and back. 

Finally, he thrust the sabre into a closer range, tangling their weapons.Ben swept his foot to catch the guard’s legs and his opponent toppled, the crackling tip of the fire sabre connecting with the soft flesh of the guard’s exposed throat. 

The gleaming edge of a glaivesuddenly swung across Ben’s senses and he stumbled back to avoid decapitation.In his haste to dodge the blow, he released his hold on the sabre, the fires fizzling out instantly as the metal clanked against the marble. 

The pole arm of the glaive arced again and again in front of Ben as he backed away from the attacks.He’d felt the rush of air against his throat as the blade had nearly missed its mark. 

He dodged and side stepped, grabbing the centre of the pole arm, to slow and hinder the frenzied attacks. 

But some desperate survival instinct had made the guard strong and ruthless.

Fatigue ached in Ben’s muscles and joints as he strained to wrest the weapon from his enemy.He stretched out his wings wide and flapped them for leverage.

A crunching sound and a jolt of pain shot up from where the guard had stomped on his foot and he doubled over. 

More pain.From his wing this time.He growled at the sensation and reeled in the trodden wing, sharp stabs coursing down it and into his back. 

The pole arm came up savagely under Ben’s chin as the guard swung around behind him and locked the biting metal against Ben’s throat with his forearm. 

Ben thrashed under the pin, kicking out, beating his wings painfully and trying to jerk forward to throw the guard over his back.But nothing seemed to release the iron hold. 

Stars burst into his vision, the pole clamping tighter against his neck. 

He couldn’t go out like this.Not when they were so close to victory.Not when he when he was so close to finally having Rey by his side. 

The pain at his throat worsened and all he could see was the vision he’d had in the hut.

Then, his sight began to darken.

\--------------------------

Rey had nearly taken the guard’s head offwhen he blocked her blow with the remaining half of his halbert, catching her sword arm in a twist that locked her mere inches from his blade. Her heart pounded violently against her breastbone and she couldn’t help the shock she knew was plainly on her face. 

She gripped his enclosed fist in an attempt to keep the razor edge away from her skin.She grit her teeth against the strain as the blade slowly dropped closer and closer.

A memory popped into her head like a gift.A memory from her days not long ago when she salvaged airship carcasses in the Jakkuan desert.It felt like an ancient time that she could barely touch now.She thought of the few times crawling through the rotted ships when she’d gotten tangled up in old rigging. 

Of having to drop her knife into her other hand to cut herself loose. 

Immediately, she released Sahar and the guards fist, catching the sword with her now free hand.She swung it up and across his neck with a savage precision, blood spattering over her face and hands.

His arms dropped to his sides like weights and he toppled to the floor in a flood of crimson. 

She stood over him, panting in the exhilaration of battle and victory.She wiped the blood and sweat off her face with the sleeve of her tunic and turned frantic eyes to search for her dragon prince. 

Her heart hitched.

He struggled in a lock on the other side of the room, the last remaining guard choking him with the pole of his weapon.Ben was unarmed, and though he was growling and baring his teeth in their fight for control, fear shone in the depths of his onyx eyes. 

His strength waned, a sickly pallor washing his skin.She’d seen this kind of assault in the marketplace many times before and it would only be seconds before Ben would be unconscious at the mercy of his enemy.

She didn’t hesitate. 

“Ben!”

His dark eyes tracked the sound of his name — her voice cutting through the room.And when he met her gaze, a light fired behind his expression.

Hope.

She flung Sahar across the space between them, using magic to steady the weapon as it sailed. 

He caught it in a low grasp, jamming it up and backwards into the open visor of the guard’s helmet.

For the briefest of moments, Sahar glowed in his hand. 

\----------------------

*It was over. 

The vice at his neck relinquished, the guard dropping away, lifeless, behind him. 

His eyes didn’t leave hers and now, as he tossed the defeated glaive to the side, they stared intently at each other as if there were no expanse between them.

As if she was in his arms already. 

He tucked Sahar’s bloodied blade into his belt , his breath heaving.

They ran for each other in an instant, closing the gap of the room with a collision of sweaty bodies and warm lips and a flutter of wings. 

The touch of her welcomed his tired body home and his dragon nature slinked far under the depths of him at the feel of her kiss.He lifted her off the floor, his hands under her hips, and she dove her slender, calloused fingers through the clammy waves of his hair. The sensation made him feel weightless. 

She kissed him like she needed his air to live and he let her, drinking in the softness, the taste of her lips. 

She murmured his name again and again between kisses, stroking his hair and face, giggling when the effects of her touch made him wobble as he set her down.She released his mouth long enough to gaze up at him, and it was then that he realized —

He was smiling.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiled.It was so familiar and so foreign at the same time. He felt like his heart was glowing through his chest.

Her honey and emerald eyes lit up at the sight of his smile and her dimples puckered. 

Rey reached up and brushed a sticky lock of his hair from his forehead and gently traced the scar on his face, as if she could somehow erase the past violence with her fingertips. She pulled him down for another kiss, deep and tender and saying silent words that filled the dark, empty corners of his soul to bursting. 

He caressed her cheek.Slid his hand into her chestnut tangles.Losing himself in the touch, the smell of his Rey. 

His home. 

He broke the kiss, leaning his forehead against hers.He had to say the words he’d been holding back since the hut.He had to tell her how he felt, even if it came out blurted and awkward.He was much better at that sort of thing on parchment but there was no reason to wait.

They had won.And they could be safe now from everything.All of it. 

They could be together, like in his vision.

A deep rumble reverberated through the ship.

“Rey, I —“

She gasped, her eyes going wide. She pulled away from his embrace so suddenly it almost hurt.She rushed to the porthole on the other side of the room, pressing her hands to the glass and letting her dragon magic fade. 

“The flock! The Uprising!We have to stop firing on the flock right now!” she said, her voice pitched in a panic.“There’s still time to save them!”

But her words downed in the sight his eyes had fallen upon. 

*A large misshapen corpse laying in twained pieces before the highest seat of power in the Order. A monster more frightening and parasitic than the dragon nature that consumed his soul.A master more attentive and transparent in his malice than Ben’s own uncle. A father who had broken fewer promises than the old captain who’d piloted The Falcon. 

Both dead now at his own hands.

Years of whispers and darkness, tugging and goading the worst parts of himself.Scaring away everyone he had once loved.

Everyone except Rey.

She had come into the ship of the most powerful dark mage in the Kingdom — to face him and fight him to the death.

For Ben. 

As foolish as it had been, no one else more capable — no one else who had claimed to love him — had ever done that.Had ever thrown themselves in the very pit of darkness to free him. 

His dad had tried.He’d failed but he’d tried.But he had been even less capable to take on the Darkness than Rey, in all her inexperience. And she had been his enemy only a few weeks ago. 

Now that Snoke lay dead, face down in a pool of crimson-black, it was as if a great chain had snapped and fallen away from Ben’s ankles and wrists. A chain he had felt fettering him to the dark mage since the first moments he could remember of his life. 

He took a deep breath, letting years of pain and torture roll off him like a suffocating cloak. He was free.But he was exhausted, deep down to the fabric of his bones. 

Tired of sides.Tired of labels. Tired of the fairytale ghosts haunting memories and making him feel like the irredeemable beast he had always believed himself to be. 

Now that his mother was gone too and Rey was by his side, there was nothing left in the whole Kingdom he cared about losing.It could all be burned away to make room for something new.Something better. 

And it started today.Right now. 

\------------------------

Anxious, Rey turned from the porthole and saw that Ben wasn’t paying attention to her.He stood, his wings sagging to the floor behind him, staring down at the gory remains of his former master.At first, she thought that maybe he was grieving.But his hard, cold stare of hatred upon the corpse told her he held no affection and no regrets about what he’d done. 

Still, the dark circles under his eyes stood out stark against his pale complexion and the slump of his shoulders made him seem smaller than she knew him to be. 

He looked hollowed out. 

“Ben?” she called softly into the room. “Are you alright?Are you hurt?”

At the sound of his name, he seemed to brighten, lifting his wings slowly into their usually place. He sighed. 

“It’s time now to let the old things die, to pass on into the pages of history as all things must,” he said. His words were so quiet that she wondered if he had simple spoken to himself. 

He pulled his attention away from Snoke’s body and turned his eyes to her, looking more tired than she had ever recalled seeing him. 

And more hopeful.

“Snoke. Skywalker. The Order. The Knighthood. The Uprising.Let it all die,” he continued. 

His demeanour shifted then.He looked at her with the eyes of a frightened, unsure animal again — the same eyes that let her in back at the hut.He swallowed and settled his gaze, striding over meet her. 

“Rey.”Her name was so very soft in his deep, warm baritone.Trembling, Ben extended his hand out to her and took to one knee, as stately and as formal as any prince would be. 

Rey’s heart began flopping around inside her chest.What was he doing? He couldn’t possibly be —

But maybe he was.

“I want you to join me,” he said.“I want you stand by my side…as my queen.And together we can create a new world.Bring a new order to the Kingdom.”

Rey’s enthusiasm and hope withered within her. It was an offer of unity, yes. But it wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be for restoration and balance, not world domination.Her vision had shown them together and yet this moment was like a dark, cracked reflection in a mirror. 

Everything was wrong.

She swallowed back the broken emotion threatening to tear her apart.

“Ben,” she said. Her voice cracked. “Please don’t…don’t go this way.Don’t let the Darkness win.Please.”

The hopeful light in his eyes blinked out and he paled, a despair so profoundly filling his aura that she couldn’t breathe.His gaze searched hers, frantic and lost. 

Hand still outstretched between them, he looked to the floor, incredulous.When he didn’t speak, she caressed her aura against his. 

“No,” he whispered. Then more loudly, “No, you’re still…you’re still…”

He set a square, even look upon her, glowing red, as he launched himself to standing. “HOLDING ON! Let go!” he roared in the dragon’s voice. 

Rey started. Even when Ben had first met her — when she had hated and feared him with her whole being — he had never once spoken to her like that. Like an enemy. 

And it frightened her. 

Ben must have felt it in her aura because in a moment his eyes were human again and he was breathing heavily, like he was soothing the storm that riled in his magic.His gaze was softer on her now but pain had been carved deeply into every line of his face, though his expression was passive. 

He took a cautious step towards her, like the day he had declared himself a monster. She did not yield her ground.Not from him. 

Another rumble of cannon fire shook the ship and she looked up at the ceiling, silently petitioning the Magix that Finn, Poe and the Queen would still be safe.

That Ben would yet turn the tide to save them. 


	14. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben tries to convince Rey not to leave, resulting in a struggle of wills and feelings. Rey awakes in the aftermath to contemplate whether her duty as a dragonslayer comes before her heart.

This couldn’t be happening.

He took a deep breath.He was drowning, salt water choking him and stinging his throat with the disappointment on Rey’s face.In her aura. 

Ben was offering her his whole life.Offering her a chance to make the Kingdom new, now he was the last heir to the throne.A Kingdom where she could make everything right again — rule as justly as she saw fit, him a humble servant at her side.

Wasn’t that what she had wanted?Wasn’t that what she’d asked him to do — to run away with her and leave everything behind?To start new?

But it seemed she’d only wanted him to defect to the Uprising all along.For him to run away with her back in the arms of those who would use him for their own gain…or worse.

He could never go back.And neither could she, not if she harboured darkness.Not truly.Once they knew what she was, they’d cast her out or kill her. 

Didn’t she understand who she was?

The burning, white-hot pain in his chest returned for the first time since the night he’d killed his father.The agony tore through him but he didn’t flinch or cry out or show any reaction at all.He wouldn’t let his human heart have the satisfaction. 

He’d been so sure…so sure of Rey’s answer, only to have the world splinter into boring shards before his eyes. 

He swallowed the arid lump that scratched and clawed at his throat. His thoughts collided together in a heap of useless words that he didn’t want to say.Three of which clung to his insides like a parasite. 

The only thing he could think of with any solid bearing sprang to his mind in an instant.He took a step closer, so that they were only a foot apart. 

Somehow the distance seemed like miles between them. 

“I meant what I said in the lift. I saw who your parents were.Do you want me to tell you the truth of them?Or have you always known, deep down?” he said. 

He had to get her to see it.To see what he was offering her…them. The chance to be more than either of them were. She had to understand that no one else could know her, see her — love her — as he could. All of her. 

And if she still chose them instead, as his parents had, then maybe Snoke had been right about their connection. And Ben was truly, completely alone.

Tears streamed down Rey’s blood streaked face and the sight tugged sharply on him.But he stopped himself from reaching out to wipe them away — from washing the pain from her eyes with kisses and whispers. 

She had to see first.To admit it with her own mouth that they were of the same story.That despite his birth, they were still equals in every way. 

That no matter what, she’d choose him.

He could see the answer to his question shining in the wells of her sadness.“Say it,” he whispered.A quiet demand.

Her lip trembled but she remained silent.This time, Ben did allow himself to brush a stray tear from where it caressed her jaw. 

“It’s okay.Just say it.”

Her barriers broke and more tears cascaded down her skin.“They were nobody.Just commoners…travellers…who didn’t want me.”

The anguish that flooded through her aura made him remember the hatred he harboured for those who had abandoned her.

“They were filthy peasants who probably sold you for drinking money.Their own child.”He sneered at the thought of them, the memory from Rey’s mind of their airship taking off without her.Of her running through the dunes screaming after them.He relished his next words. “And now they’re dead in a pauper’s grave somewhere in the desert, where they deserve to be.”

She looked at him now, her eyes calm and vulnerable.Her lips parted every so slightly.Waiting.

“In this story…of noble names and magic and mages…you don’t have a place.You are nobody in the eyes of the Kingdom.You’re nothing.”

She blinked at him, stunned.She lowered her eyes, tucking the shame that radiated through her aura behind the stubborn, defiant tilt of her chin that had first endeared her to him. 

Perhaps he’d been too blunt.Perhaps his bold statement had come out wrong. He thought of stammering and back-tracking and apologizing.But he didn’t want to do any of that.What he’d said had been true.

Instead, he reached out, closing the gap between them, and tenderly tipped her face up to his.

“But not to me.Not to _me_ ,” he said, his voice as warm a hush as he could manage. 

_To me, you are everything._

\-----------------------

Her heart nearly stopped beating.

She was so confused.One minute they had won their greatest obstacle and they were together, the whole world swept away in each other’s arms.The next, he was torturing her with her most painful truths and then professing his affection for her in some twisted version of what the Magix had shown her.She didn’t understand. 

She could feel his loneliness — see it in his eyes.He was free now of his master’s control.So why was this happening? Why was he trying to persuade her with pain instead of just saying plainly what he communicated in his aura every time they touched?

Ben straightened himself and took a step back, puffing out his chest to appear every bit the dark prince he was. 

“Join me.” His deep tone caressed her ears.“Be my queen.I’ll give you everything.” 

He held out his hand again, the flickering lamplight reflecting off the leather glove.His motion was tentative, as if she was going to bite off his fingers.

His brown eyes stared at her like saucers, as open to her as the night sky from the deck of an airship.They contrasted with the proud swagger of his stance.Pleading and desperate.

“Please,” he whispered, the breath trembling.

_Stay with me_.

She read it in every dewey line of his handsome face.And she realized it now. 

Despite the strange, brutal methods that cloaked his true heart, he was being sincere.At least, as sincere as someone tormented by Darkness his whole life ever could be.And as she stared into the depths of him, every remaining piece of the heart that loved Ben broke, sendingtiny slivers to cut and burrow into her soul.

For as sincere as he was, he was still a dragon.Foolishly, she’d believed that by killing Snoke, the dragon would lose it’s grip on his soul and disappear.Leaving only Ben behind. But she saw now that Sir Luke had been right, that the dragon nature in him couldn’t be erased so easily.Tamed, perhaps, but never broken.And as long as the dragon lived, Ben would never truly be free to love as full and rich as any man could. 

Dragons brought hate and anger and hunger for power — everything that would separate them in the end. 

It would always be there to pin him to a past of hurt and sorrow that he so desperately sought to destroy.To remind him of his pain at every turn.To lure him back to the Darkness.And because of that, she couldn’t promise herself to him now, no matter how greatly his eyes were desperate for her.No matter how his heart would break. 

She had to protect the Kingdom first.Whether she could ever be a true Knight or not with her tainted magic, it was her duty, regardless of what it cost her. 

She though back to the hut. 

Ben’s quivering hand taking hers, entwining their fingers and their souls. Seeing their future together — a future that felt like a cruel trick. She remembered touching the scars of his bare skin, touching his hair, his face. Kissing his lips for the first time.Taking his body into hers and feeling the sense of awe and belonging that she clung to — even now. 

Their future had been beautiful, more beautiful and achingly real than her entire life trapped in the sand dunes of Jakku.She wept for that future, the tears trickling down her cheeks, hot and bitter.She mourned it, not knowing if it ever, truly could have been. 

And she wept for Ben.For the sad, lonely little boy he once was.And for the conflicted, cursed man that stood before her now.She saw the terror in his eyes — felt it cloistering around her. 

_Stay with me_. 

She closed her eyes, just for an instant, bracing her courage.She pulled her magic from him and cupped his offered hand in hers, curling his fingers into his palm and covering them with her own. 

He offered her everything.But all she wanted was Ben…the _real_ Ben. 

“You know I can’t,” she whispered back.Her lower lip trembled with the effort of forming the words. 

Letting her grief spill out, she grasped Sahar’s hilt and pulled it from Ben’s belt.

It was time to save the Uprising, even if she had to take down the entire Sovereignty by herself. 

\----------------------

No.

He had bared the sting of abandonment and betrayal times before.But not her too. 

Anyone but _her_.

He saw it in her gaze only a moment before she reached out for the Skywalker blade.She was quick, but his heartbreak made him quicker.

Rey’s confusion turned to shock when she looked to see why the blade had caught.He had taken hold of the naked edge with his hand, wrapping his grip around it like a lifeline.It bit through the glove easily and stung like ice as it cut into his flesh, the blessed blade nullifying his dragon’s healing. 

He didn’t care.

If she left him now, after all they conquered to get to that moment — after all they had shared — then she might as well set the blade to what remained of the pitiful thing that was his heart and pierce it through.To slay the dragon and give his grandfather’s Sword the vengeance it craved. To finish what his uncle had been too weak to do. 

Shock turned to determination as she struggled to tug Sahar free of his grasp. But he couldn’t let her take it.He couldn’t let her leave.He unfurled his wings and swept them through the air, lifting him off the floor and towards the vaulted ceiling.Rey nearly tumbled forward but instead of relinquishing the Sword, she matched his strategy.

Her dust-coloured wings spread from her back and in a moment, their struggle became aerial, whirling around in circles, neither yielding to the other. 

Ben grit his teeth against the bite of the blessed steel as it sunk deeper into his hand with every tug and yank, the fire in his veins hissing.Scorching blood pooled between his fingers and dripped to the floor below, it’s colour lost in the black marble. 

The cannons rumbled above them as they danced in loops, a private war of a farewell.

A great crashing resounded through the room at the same time as an explosion of blinding light tore between them.Ben felt the steel snap under his grip. 

And then there was nothing but soothing darkness. 

\----------------------

*Rey awoke to devastation.Smoke filled the state room and she lifted her head off the floor — splitting pain throbbing behind her eyes.

The lamps on the walls had fallen and cracked, the tapestries alight with their fire.She ignored the dull aching in her joints and pushed herself to stand.Through the haze, she saw a gaping hole gouged into the corner of the room, as if it had been bitten into by a great beast. 

Absently, her sight roved the rubble for Ben’s form amongst the ash and bodies scattered throughout the room.But the smoke was too thick, stinging her eyes and throat.She coughed as she picked her way over the carnage of shattered marble and splintered wood and glass to the edge of the hole.

She looked out at the open sky and the landscape below, jagged with the peaks of the Crait Mountains.The entire starboard half of The Sovereignty’s bow had been smashed away, taking several steering sails and probably the cannon holds with it.The massive airship was grounded in the sky, though for now, it seemed it like their balloons and furnaces were still intact.

But far below, the Uprising’s ship lay in scattered pieces, peppering the mountains with white and orange debris.Rey squinted in the sunlight, searching for any dark shadows that remained on the horizon.Relief washed over her when she finally saw the dusky outlines of a flock of large birds, heading for the mountain valley.

Though The Sovereignty had taken heavy damages, it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the Order’s armada would arrive to assist them.The Uprising wasn’t safe yet, especially in the valley, where the mountains seemed nearly impassible.They would be trapped.

She had to get to them.She had to get back to The Falcon and come up with a plan. 

Rey turned back to the smokey chaos of the room, searching for Sahar.As the fresh air from the open hole pulled the smoke out of the space, she caught and stumbled over loose marble and wooden beams.At one point, even a body.

She felt a wash of cold relief when she realized it wasn’t the face she had dreaded to find in the empty stare of death. 

Finally, a glintof shining, silvery blue captured her attention at the other end of the state room.But when she retrieved it from under a half-charred remnant of tapestry, her heart sank. 

Sahar was broken in half, an uneven edge serrating the place where it had once been whole.Instead of glowing and humming under her touch, it remained still and lifeless in her palm, the jewel in it’s winged hilt — its sol — dark as a midnight ocean.A small part of her grieved for whatever life the power of the Light had once bestowed it, now gone.

She searched through the haze, knowing the other half must be in the room somewhere.Perhaps it could be repaired, it’s magic restored. 

But her eyes fell upon him, laying crumpled against the far wall, one charcoal wing crushed underneath him at an odd angle and the other draping over his unconscious form, a long tear slashed through the centre of the thin, silky membrane. 

Ben.

She hoped he was only unconscious.

She was at his side before she had even registered her movement.Kneeling, Rey gazed down at her dragon prince, feeling the steady rise and fall of his breaths as she placed her hand on his shoulder. 

He looked so young and so innocent this way, nearly like the boy she’d seen in her vision in the hut.The boy she was sure was meant to be her son. 

Their son.

Ben’s dark lashes laid thickly over the tops of his blood-smeared cheeks and his full lips puckered slightly with the squashed angle of his face against the floor.Almost like a prince awaiting his noble Knight to break the curse with a kiss.

She laughed bitterly at the childish idea, her eyes prickling with emotion.

If only it had been that simple. 

No kisses or love or anything gentle would free Ben from the possession of the dragon.And as long as he and the dragon were one, the Kingdom would never be safe.Yet the only way to slay the monster was to also slay the man along with it. 

The man she loved. 

She looked down at his bloody hand and saw that the other half of Sahar was clutched in his wet grip.Carefully, she peeled away his fingers to take it from him and she winced, feeling the pain of the raw, open gashes across his palm and joints as if they were her own wounds to bare.Her brows furrowed, holding the hilt of the broken Sword tightly in her hand.

There would be no easier time — no other time where the dragon would be this vulnerable and subdued — than now, while Ben could not fight back.Now was her opportunity to slay the beast and give the Uprising the shift of power it needed to rescue the Kingdom from the shadow of Snoke’s reign. 

They would all be free.

She raised Sahar’s serrated, uneven point over the ribs that she knew would lead to a quick, fatal blow.The faces of those in the Uprising she cared about paraded through her mind, haunting her decision. 

A sharp agony pierced her through at the thought of Ben — her Ben — being lost for good.Memories of the hut flashed across her heart, the hollow, hoping promises that had burned in her soul ever since.The hot embrace of tears caressed her face.

She dropped the ruined Sword, letting it clatter to the cracked marble. 

Maybe…maybe there was still hope.

Snoke was a cunning serpent who had clearly delighted in mental torture and deceit.No matter what he said, she would never believe that what she shared with Ben — what she felt for him —was the dark mage’s doing.Such an evil heart could not possibly know the gentle, healing touch of empathy and love. 

She had seen their bond peel away the grip of the dragon, piece by piece, to reveal the man inside.And though her feelings for him wouldn’t snuff out the monster for good, there had to be another way to end it and still preserve Ben’s life.There had to be. 

Dragon’s were born of Darkness and it had been the Darkness that showed her a future free of the dragon.Perhaps in time, it would show her how.

If the gruelling life she lived in the dunes of Jakku had taught her nothing else, it had taught her how to salvage the treasures of broken things and how to be patient. 

Rey did both of these things well. 

She leaned down over Ben and drank him in one last time. The beautiful man who had been her mortal enemy only a week ago, so still and child-like.Already, she could see the dragon magic slowly stitching the slashes in his wings and the cuts on his face.Only the gouges in his hand would leave any lasting damage.

She pushed his sticky, tussled waves away from his ear and hovered her lips close. 

“I’m so sorry,” she breathed.Her words rustled the fly-away hairs. “I know when you wake up, everything will be changed and the dragon will fight to claim you.But Ben —“ Her voice faltered, her throat suddenly bone dry. 

She swallowed. “Ben, there is one thing that will remain the same.”She took a shuddering breath.“I love you,” she whispered.“No matter what that evil snake said, I love you.And I’ll never stop trying to come back for you.I promise.”

Rey pressed her lips, tremulous and gentle, to his temple, running her finger through his hair with the aching uncertainty that she may never get to again. 

For in the end, the dragon could destroy them both.

She rose, collecting Sahar’s broken pieces, and headed for the hole.Every muscle within her ached from the battle and the explosion.But none more so than her heart, as shesummoned her wings and dropped through the damaged hull into the open sky. 

\-------------------------

The sharp crack of fire splitting wood roused him from the black, peaceful oblivion he had fallen into. He knew it was fire because the flames and smoke called to him like the loving embrace of a mother. A thunderous pain rattled through his head, making the room unfocused when he finally opened his eyes.Bright blue light blinded him and his soul jarred.

Rey.

He rolled to his stomach, crying out with the sudden, sickening stab that shot through the wing he’d been laying on.He forced his eyes to adjust to the light — forced his body to ignore the pain, frantic to search for her in the chaos. To make sure she was alright.

For the briefest moment just before he woke, he thought he had heard her voice calling his name. But as the dragon’s sight scanned the ruins of the state room, corpses and shambles, ashes and blood, he couldn’t find her.He closed his eyes and let his aura reach out for her.If he could only find a trace of her —

A boot scraped against the crumbling marble and he whipped his attention to the figure behind him. 

General Hucks stood near the crooked doorframe that led out into the hall.He looked disheveled and had his hand perched upon his crossbow.Probably caught plotting something unwise by the surprised annoyance on his face. 

Ben stood, gritting his teeth at the pain in his head, his wings, his hand.They would heal without a thought— everything except his palm. 

He surveyed the ruin.What he’d mistaken for Sahar’s glow turned out to be a large chunk of missing hull torn out of the far side of the room where bright, open sky looked in.A chill mountain breeze swept into the room, brushing across his damp hair. 

“What happened?” he asked the General.Ben didn’t even need to look at Hucks to know he was scowling.

“That’s what _I_ was going to ask you, _Dragon_!”The sharp cut of his tone grated against Ben’s headache.He refused to turn around, focusing his eyes on the sky beyond instead.Hucks’ boots tapped heavy and frantic over to the centre of the room, where Snoke’s severed body lay. 

“And what happened to him?” Hucks asked, quietly this time but with a hard edge.

Ben knew Rey was still alive.He could feel the faintest hint of her presence at the edge of his senses.But she didn’t reach back for him. Didn’t open her aura to him.It was then that he realized she’d abandoned him. 

Snoke had been right.Their connection had just been another manipulation.And in the end, she’d chosen the Uprising…just like everyone else he’d loved.He’d been a fool.

The burning in his chest flared.

He kept his voice flat, devoid of the emotions that had led him into this disaster. “I brought the girl into custody, as our Liege requested, and she murdered him.” 

“What?How?What about the guards…you?Surely she’s not capable —“

Ben turned a dragon’s stare on Hucks, burning and intense enough to make the general drop his words and the patronizing smirk on his weasel face. 

It didn’t matter that he’d lied.In truth, he’d killed Snoke for Rey’s sake and in that way, she was to blame.For the severing of their Sovereign Liege, the Sword of his grandfather, and his —

He swallowed the word ‘heart’ as it rose at the surface of his mind.Choking it.Drowning it in the Dragonfire that was churning and ebbing afresh in his veins and his chest, filling that human void of shattered pieces with smoke and ash. 

After all of it — after everything he had risked to unite them, Rey had only wanted him for what it had meant to the Uprising.To save _them_. To tame him like a pet at her side while she was heralded a hero.Just as Snoke had.

For the first time in his miserable life, he had wanted something for himself that wasn’t attached to his power.Wanted something tangible and steady and real to belong to.To give up himself wholly, knowing he was safe.That he wouldn’t be abandoned and he was finally, truly, _Home_. 

And Rey, who he had seen into and opened up himself for, had used every ounce of her magical insight to lure him into this betrayal and lull the dragon nature — his faithful protector — into her submission.Using him.Had she planned to seduce him all along so he would kill for her? 

The last pieces of his humanity were in ruin, scattered into the numb abyss that that rolled over him a like a soothing ocean wave.There was only the dragon now, imbibing his being with the strength and fire he had grown accustomed to. 

His wings didn’t hurt anymore.Only the sharp sting in his palm gave him trouble now.It would have to heal the human way, leaving thick scars to remind him of all that the sandlark had broken. 

He walked forward into the devastation, scanning the floor for something to bind his hand. 

“What happened to The Sovereignty?” he asked as he bent down and tore a strip off a dead guard’s tunic.He pulled away his sticky glove, clenching his teeth at the raw sensation, and began wrapping the red cloth slowly around his wound. 

“The rebel ship rammed us at boost speed.We tried to evade the impact but we weren’t fast enough.They must have been saving the very last of their coal reserve for the maneuver.Their ship disintegrated on impact but not before it took out half the bloody bow.”Hucks gave a terse sigh.“A handful of the rebels escaped after our cannons were destroyed, but the rest of the armada is only a few miles behind us. We’ll be able to pursue them soon enough.”

He looked at Hucks with a bored gaze.“Any sign of the girl?”

“No.” 

Kylor slipped his glance away from the General as if he had been nothing more than a shadow and he used his teeth to pull the bandage into a knot at his wrist. He stared out of the gap and into the hazy snow-covered landscape beyond. 

“Well, we know exactly where she’s headed.Gather our remaining soldiers and as soon as the armada arrives, we set out for that valley.”Kylor knew how the rebels thought.They wouldn’t run off to an impassible valley if they didn’t have a plan and a stronghold to shelter them.“They won’t get away this time.”

Tucking his wings closely to his body, he strode for the door to the hall, brushing passed Hucks as he went. 

The General’s voice reached a fever pitch behind him. “How _dare_ you presume to command _my_ army!Who do you think you’re talking to? Our Sovereign Liege is dead! We have no ruler.And if you think that I’m going to let —“

His words trailed into choked gurgles, his blue eyes bulging from strain.Kylor wasn’t sure at first what had happened until he realized, with passive amusement, that he had stretched out his hand and gripped Hucks’ throat with a strong tendril of magic. He didn’t know why either, other than he didn’t care to hear any more of the General’s whining.And that someone as deadly intelligent with war and politics as Hucks could not be allowed to sate his ambitions. 

Kylor despised the sandlark, Luke and whole Uprising; wanted them destroyed and buried so far into the earth that their remains would never be found. 

But not the Kingdom.No, the Kingdom had great potential to thrive under the right ruler — his mother had taught him that once upon a time.Under the rule of Emperor Palpatine, the Kingdom lived in tight constraints with little permission to grow. Under the New Republic and his mother’s reign, it had taken a collective breath and ventured into new economic growth.But suspicion and political scandal had blinded the people to their greatest threats and had allowed the iron mantle of Snoke’s shadow to blot out the freedom and peace they had wanted to regain. 

And if Hucks took power, the Kingdom would suffer under the cold apathy of his grand design. 

Kylor was certain now of the monster everyone had always told him he was. But the General was a monster of a kind that even paled Snoke’s cruelty.He would remain on a leash.

And the dragon would be no one’s pawn. Not anymore.

He tightened the grip of his magic around Hucks’ neck.“Yes.Our Sovereign Liege is dead. And we will have a new one.”

He glared at the General with a soft warning growl rumbling in his throat.In seconds, understanding bloomed in Hucks’ bulging, blood-shot eyes.

“Long…live…the Sovereign Liege,” he rasped.

Looked like the General would live up to his intelligence after all. 

Kylor recalled his magic and Hucks dropped to his knees, gasping and rubbing at the bruises on his neck that were already starting to surface. Kylor whirled back to face the door again, knowing the Kingdom was better off under the rule of a dragon than the icy clutches of a red-haired demon.

“Gather your soldiers, General.We have an uprising to end.”


	15. Fire and Fury

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylor wages all-out war against the remnants of the Uprising in the Crait Mountains. Rey takes on Kylor's minions.

*She stood at the mouth of the Uprising’s new camp, robed in the warmest, high-collared cloak the abandoned stronghold had stashed away.Leia searched the sky above the Crait Mountains, the ominous black silhouettes of the Order’s armada stark against the clear afternoon. She sighed with a growing resignation. 

It would only be a matter of hours before the Order of Dragonfire would come to extinguish what remained of their only opposition in the Kingdom.When they weighed anchor, little would protect and defend the last spark of hope for her people. 

And, as her scouts just informed her, their stronghold would also offer them no way to escape. 

If their pixie messengers didn’t reach their allies in time, or worse, if their allies didn’t incline to aid their final stand, she knewdeep in the fabric of her bones that this would be their end. 

Their end at the hands of her own son — whom she still loved despite everything. 

She’d held hope for so long, even after the dragon had murdered her husband.Though there was the tiniest flare still glimmering in the recesses of her heart that maybe he could come back to her, it would take a miracle to turn his tides now. 

At the very edges of her aura, his presence loomed amongst the silhouettes in the sky and it was thunderous in intent.Focusing a storm of hatred towards the valley that now sheltered them. 

She recognized that emotion like an old friend turned enemy. For it was the same intense, seething fire that she had lit behind the rebel cause and pointed at the Empire when she was barely a woman. Now it was aimed directly at those who had sworn their allegiance to her.A dark irony.

One that she deserved.

Ben, who had once been so small and beautiful and filled with a hurricane of emotions even then. She had failed him.Her job had been to chase away the nightmares — to hunt down and protect him from those who would cause him harm until he was strong enough to fight them away himself. 

But she had been so busy trying to rebuild a Kingdom where Ben would be safe, so distracted and frustrated with Han’s idea of a marriage, that she had let the monsters under the bed claim a foothold in her little boy’s heart.She’d let an evil man nurture the Darkness in his soul until that Darkness frightened her enough to send her only child away to have the ghosts of her father’s folly trained out of him.

She carried that shame with her always.How could she have been such a coward?She wondered with a passive curiosity if everything could have been different now had she just been the brave warrior queen her loyal subjects hailed her as.Would Ben be standing there by her side now if she had channeled that fire and ferocity into protecting him?

Leia sighed, bracing her weight into the cane she now needed.She peeled her feet from the entrance to the cave stronghold before the cold could give her a chill.Her body was still healing from the attack on The Raddus and still vulnerable to becoming worse if she didn’t make wise decisions.

Not that it would matter if the Order exterminated them all by night fall.

But now that the last members of the Uprising were safely inside the stronghold — the ex-Order soldier, Finn, and the rebels’ chief furnace-master, Rose Tico — they could finally fortify the iron doors against the coming onslaught.Perhaps barring the doors would buy the Uprising enough time for their allies to come to their aid.

She made her way back through the massive doors that capped the sole entrance — and exit — of the labyrinth of tunnels that was now their final shelter.Her adopted father,Count Bail Organa, had helped establish these mountain caves into a secret rebel stronghold when she was just a child, and they were long abandoned before the First Kingdom War had even ended. 

Now she knew why.

The soldiers manning each side of the entrance looked to her as she walked passed them and she gave a quick nod.The door creaked and groaned on their old hinges while her men began to seal off the stronghold in quick obedience. 

Leia glanced over her shoulder, feeling the last of the bitter mountain wind sailing over her.And she couldn’t help but think of her brother.Thinking of his bright eyes and sunshine hair, so noble against the icy terrain of Hoth Territory those decades ago. She wished he was with her for this final stand against the shadow of the Darkness.She wished she could see her twin one last time before the end. 

But perhaps it was best for the Kingdom that Luke was so far away from her now.It meant he’d survive. If at least one of the Skywalkers lived, there would be hope.

Leia wondered if all those miles away, Luke could still feel how much she loved him and missed him.

When the loud clang of the iron doors barred her vision of the sky, she trekked ahead deeper into the stronghold, where her followers would be waiting to hear some enlightened, empowering speech about victory.But that wouldn’t be the speech she’d be giving them. 

No, this was their final hour.The moment when the spark would flare and ignite again or be snuffed out for good.But if this was it, then they had a dramatic fight to the death to plan and she wasn’t going to waste it on pretty lies and false promises.She would send them to fight knowing their chances.

And that when they were destroyed, she’d be going out with them, as any rebel queen should. 

A voice from behind her drew Leia’s attention. 

“My Queen,” Poe said.His dark hair drooped with the flakes of snow that had settled on his head. “We’ve patched up the skimmers as much as we can but I don’t know how long they’ll hold up.Our scouts figure we have about an hour before the first of the Order’s ships anchor in the valley. What are your commands, Majesty?”

Leia nodded her head and placed her hand on Poe’s shoulder.She wasn’t supposed to have favourites amongst her men and he certainly gave her more trouble than he was worth.But she’d always had a fondness for him, ever since he was a boy attending councils with his mother.Years ago, she’d thought that maybe he and Ben would have made good friends. But that was a long dead hope. 

“Walk with me, Poe,” she said. “There’s much to talk about and I’m counting on every leadership skill you’ve got in that pretty head of yours.”

Poe’s dark eyes sparkled like the vain peacock he was.But Leia knew he wouldn’t let her down again. 

\------------------------

*Kylor’s trimaran swayed in the strong winds that streamed down from the mountains.He stood on the balcony of the helm, staring down at the thick iron doors that separated him from his victory.The stronghold seemed quiet but he knew better.He could smell the fear rolling off of wherever the rebels were hiding their defence plan.A flicker of something familiar — a faint presence — prickled at the edges of his aura but the dragon was too focused to care. 

The memories of what had happened in the state room fuelled the fire that burned through his veins like the magma core of a volcano.Nothing would stop him from using his power to end the vermin plaguing _his_ Kingdom with disorder and lies.It would end here today if he had to melt down the entire mountain range to ash and soot to do it. 

The snapping of sails from the Order’s approaching armada filled him with resolve.He watched the rusted doors of the stronghold as if his eyes could bore a hole right through it.It didn’t matter though.Soon, his dragonfire would, even if his eyes couldn’t. 

As the helmsman set the trimaran down on the fresh layer of snow, a crisp crunch rising from the ground under the weight of the vessel, Kylor extended out his wings to their full span, hearing shouts of enthusiasm from the soldiers rimming the main decks of the armada. 

Another airship anchored beside his.Then another. Until a quarter of the ships were docked and sending out their marching battalions from the holds. The men stood in their formations across the frontline of the armada, their red banners and black armour stark against the blinding white, like soot and blood.With screeches and roars, a dozen wyvern and harpy rounded the armada, their hunger for blood palpable.

A shrill, pompous voice scratched against his hearing. 

“The army is ready to be commanded, _my Liege_.”The effort Hucks had put into the last two words not sounding half as resentful as they were impressed Kylor more than he was willing to admit. The General was a devil but at least he knew his place.“Give the word and they’ll march.”

“Yes,” Kylor said, flat and direct.“You, perhaps, need a few reminders, but I know how commanding an army works, General.”The look of pure loathing and embarrassment on Hucks’ face was worth every syllable of his retort.“They’ll march when the rebels show their hand.They wouldn’t trap themselves in a grave without some kind of defence.When they come out to meet us, we march.”

Hucks gave a curt nod, his jaw straining with the effort not to make a snide comment.He then turned on his heels and sauntered back to helm. 

Kylor focused his sights back on the valley.Within in minutes, what he’d been expecting appeared. 

Dozens of snow skimmers emerged from trap doors at the base of the mountain.Old, nearly decrepit and barely functional from the looks of them.Easily beaten.He watched passively, as the mass of skimmers approached his waiting army.He raised his hand, knowing every commanding eye was fixed on him.

*He gave the signal.

Several commanders shouted as one, giving the order to march and fire upon the rebels’ pathetic attempt at a defence. At once, the infantry plodded forward, the archers staying behind to knock their arrows.Double-crossbows and cannons lining the edges of the armada, began loading their weapons. The dark fae swooped down into the valley.

Then, perfect chaos reigned down upon the Uprising. 

One by one, the skimmers began to crash and explode, veering off course and smashing into one another to avoid arrows and cannon fire.Within moments, the dozens of skimmers dwindled to a meagre handful.Meagre but resilient.

He had to give them that. 

As the cannons thundered all around him, mixing with the screams from the valley, he knew it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the Uprising, nestled inside the stronghold, would be completely vulnerable.Soon, the iron doors barring his way to victory — and peace — would be destroyed and he would pry out his enemies like a mollusk from its shell.

It was time.

He took a deep breath, preparing to summon his dragon form, when something stirred at the edges of his aura.Something strong, bright and fierce like a dragon.Like —

Sunlight.

His gaze flicked to the brilliant sky. 

There, a dark blot emerged from the shelter of a cloud and his stomach riled with acid.It was the old Captain’s ship. He was sure of it. And he knew exactly who was on that ship, ready to come the Uprising’s rescue like the _hero_ she thought herself to be. 

Rey.

The name disgusted him as it rattled through his thoughts.Poison flooded his guts, a pang of pain so deep he felt numb. Fire ripped through his veins as he dug his talons deep into his palms with a clench of his fist. 

Kylor swivelled around and flared his wings, lifting into the air.He swooped around to the largest of the armada ships and found the cannon master heading below deck.He seized the round man and spun him in the direction of The Falcon’s silhouette. 

Kylor’s eyes burned with insatiable fire.“I want you to shoot that hunk of junk out of the sky!Is that understood?”

The man nodded.“Yes, my Liege.”He blinked lazily at Kylor and he released the cannon master with a flicker of a snarl.

His eye began to twitch and Kylor turned away so that his subordinate wouldn’t see. 

He rose into the air again and this time, he could see The Falcon’s masthead figure clearly.He sent out a tendril of magic to capture the attention of the flying beasts that served his cause.They immediately turned from their carnage on the battlefield and surrounded Kylor in a dark, graceful circle of flight.He pointed up at the approaching vessel and the creatures did not hesitate to obey his silent command. 

They took off with screeches and scraping cries towards the ship where his greatest enemy waited for her demise. 

Between the cannons and the creatures of Darkness, it would be very hard for her to escape his wrath.A large part of him wanted to do it himself — to transform and blow The Falcon to tiny pieces, erasing everything that haunted him. But he had a bigger mission to deal with.A larger threat to extinguish now that the Uprising was at it’s weakest.Now that he was so close to succeeding where Snoke had failed.His grandfather and the even the Emperor too.He would destroy the rebels once and for all. 

He turned his sights on the iron doors of the mountain stronghold.Feeling the inferno burning through his body, soothing the pain that had cut him to the core, he drew the shroud of black smoke around him and let the monster free. 

He soared through the cold mountain air, banking around to face the stronghold.With a roar, he swooped down and crashed into two skimmers, sending them rolling through the snow in a smear of crimson and splinters.He could sense his men scattering away from him, pulling back as the plan had been. 

There were only three skimmers left now, two falling back and one barreling straight ahead, intent on ramming Kylor, it seemed.He felt a familiar aura and his eyes squinted down at the rebel maneuvering the tiny vessel. 

Ex-Soldier Eph-En.

His dark skin contrasted against the white of the sail and his eyes burned with a determined recklessness the dragon found amusing. 

But there was nothing he could do to stop Kylor’s power from taking out that door.He would die in vain, like the traitor he was. 

Kylor inhaled deeply, drawing up the fire from within him and heaved a great breath, pouring every ounce of burning, writhing hatred down upon the stronghold.The volcanic cascade began to melt the iron like a sword under a forge fire, peeling back the stronghold’s barricade like a flower opening to the sun.

Once the hole was large enough for his soldiers to enter, he ceased his raging attack, noticing with some disappointment that the Traitor’s charred skimmer had been knocked off course, close to the trenches that lined the front of the stronghold.Though, it wouldn’t matter if he was alive.Soon, every member of the Uprising would join the Order or be executed for their war crimes. 

Feeling the tang of victory on his tongue he flapped his great wings and rose into the air, letting the smoke drag his beastly form back into the depths as he landed on the balcony of his trimaran. 

He was going to savour this moment for all it was worth. 

\--------------------

*“Hard to starboard, Chewie! They’re coming in port side!”Rey shouted as she ran down the stairs into the cannon hold.If they could just keep the Order distracted long enough, it might give the Uprising a chance to escape.

But she hadn’t expected wyverns and harpies when she’d come up with this plan.She had no idea where they’d come from or where the Order had kept them, but she’d seen no sign of them when she’d first come aboard The Sovereignty. Either they had come with the rest of the armada or they’d made themselves scarce in Ben’s presence. 

It didn’t matter now.They were breathing down The Falcon’s throat and while they had managed to evade the cannons until they’d flown out of range, the beasts chasing them would not so easily be out run.That meant she had to get her backside down in the firing hold and try to blast them as fast as possible. 

She whipped around the stairwell and sprinted to the cannons, hoisting a ball into the chamber and stuffing it with gunpowder.She searched around for a flint, but it wastaking too long.Instead, she held the wick between her fingers and looked out the hole to spy her query. 

Two wyverns banked sharply with The Falcon's direction change and she watched carefully as they grew closer and closer.She just needed the right moment.

She could sense it.The building fire in their lungs.And her timing had to be exact if she was going to make the most of her shot. She wheeled the cannon to her right, waiting.

Almost.

Nearly.

Then, the creatures made a heaving movement and Rey channeled her dragon magic into the fingers that held the wick, igniting it instantly.She braced for the recoil and the noise.

Boom!

The cannon ball sped directly between the two the wyverns as they released their fire towards the airship, exploding the cannon ball in a shower of flame and tiny metal that shredded through their scales and wings.

With pained shrieks, they tumbled through the air and dropped to the jagged mountain peaks below. 

She grinned.“I can’t believe that worked…” 

Another wyvern swooped down into her sights and she felt The Falcon turn, anticipating the shot she needed to take. 

Chewie definitely knew what he was doing. 

As she heaved the next cannon ball into the chamber, she imagined what Captain Han would be saying and doing right now if he were there. 

Yelling, certainly.

Probably some insulting.

And more than a bit of grumbling.

She smiled despite the dire scenario and grasped the new wick in her fingers.

This time, the wyvern gave her an easier shot.It flew at the cannon opening, grappling it with its feet, trying to wrest it out of the hold by force. 

Brows furrowed, she ignited the wick and braced.

Hot, wet splotches splattered across her face and the end of the cannon was coated in goopy entrails.As satisfied as she was, Rey knew the cannon would be useless with that much wet debris inside the chamber. 

Chewie’s guttural roar piqued her attention and The Falcon swayed under her. 

She eyed the crate in the corner that held a small harpoon gun.She grabbed it and the handful of barbed bolts beside it, dashing up the stairs.

The yeti roared again and Rey saw now what the distress was about.A harpy flapped wildly above Chewie, slashing at him with the talons of her feet.Blood streaked the yeti’s arm and shoulder from her attacks and Rey furrowed her brows, her focus intent.

Without looking, she loaded the bolt into the harpoon gun and took aim behind a bound bundle of barrels half way to the helm.She stretched out her aura only enough to sense the flow of the Magix, to let it guide her. 

The bolt whizzed through the air and struck the harpy directly into the heart.The creature looked down at the wound, confused, and then dropped to the deck in a whirl of dark grey feathers. 

“Are you alright?” Rey called out. 

The yeti replied with the largest mouthful of fae profanity she’d ever heard. 

She raised her brows and stuffed another bolt into the harpoon gun, smiling. 

“Well, as long you’re alright.Don’t worry…I’ve got your back.”

A whoosh sounded behind her and she whipped around to rushing talons.She barely ducked in time to avoid having her eyes clawed out as a second harpy launched at her, feet first. 

Rey turned and grabbed hold of the harpy’s leg as it passed over her, causing her to falter and crash to the wooden floor.As she rolled to recover, her feathers falling out across the deck, Rey aimed and fired.

The bolt sank between her eyes and the harpy stopped moving. 

Rey panted, her heart surging adrenaline through every muscle of her body.Her hands shook but she loaded another bolt, ready for the next creature who tried to stop them. 

She scanned the bright sky, knowing their had to be more coming.Ben was lost in his pain, yes.She had felt it laying over the valley like a cloak of sorrow. But his mind was strong, always working, calculating.She’d gathered that much over the course of the time she’d known him.Which meant that he wouldn’t be so careless as to underestimate the skill between her and Chewie combined.That only a handful of his lackeys would get the job done. 

At least she thought he’d have more sense than that after their last two fights. 

Ah.

Screeches warbled from under The Falcon’s hull and she raced to the edge of the railing, looking over.Four wyvern and two harpies were ascending to their altitude for an attack. 

She took out the remaining harpoon bolts and punched the three of them into the wood railing so that they stood tip-down beside her.Rey pointed the harpoon gun down at the largest of the wyvern.She let a ragged breath go as the bolt sailed from the gun and deeply into the back of her target.It curled up and fell in a downward spiral towards the ground. 

One by one, she loaded and fired, the creatures of Darkness dropping to their demise.One of the wyvern had nearly slashed open their balloon before Rey shot a bolt through its neck.It landed with a rattling thud on the deck, swaying The Falcon.

Finally, she realized she had no more bolts, the last two creatures pursuing them closely.It would be a matter of moments before they were accessing the deck, ripping sails and cutting essential tie-downs.The Falcon would be rendered useless. 

The tie-downs.The ropes.

A thought to came her.She had lots of experience with climbing and ropes and jumping from rigging to rigging amongst the old airship ruins in Jakku.She yanked the broken pieces of Sahar from her belt and searched the myriad of ropes that hung above her, connecting to various rigs and pulleys that kept the balloon up. 

She spotted it then.A redundant rope tied and looped around the pulley for the steering sail.

Immediately, she pulled her belt off and tied it around her left hand.Hopefully it would protect her bare hand enough to hold the naked edge of Sahar’s blade. 

“Chewie!Hard to port! As hard as you can take her! I’ve got a plan!” Her words cut through the wind and she heard the yeti respond as the ship began to lurch with the sharp turn of the wheel. 

Rey cut the rope she’d selected and tied it tightly around her waist.Taking both the pieces of Sahar in each hand, she crouched, ready to volley over the edge of the ship when the turn was at it’s deepest. 

Screeches filled the air as the harpy and the wyvern came into sight.The Falcon was nearly tipped on it side when it rounded the creatures and Chewie let out a concerned roar as Rey ran for the edge of the ship and launched herself over the side.

Blades in hands, she let the force of the turn swing her towards the creatures, the rope guiding her and keeping her tethered as she arced through the air.She tucked her arms in close and felt for the Magix. Felt it’s hum and ebb.She twisted her torso so that her face saw the open sky.

Dark, whooshing shadows rushed up on either side of her, their shrieks deafening, and she threw out her arms, sliding the broken pieces of Sahar along their bellies as she swung between them. 

The Falcon’s deck came up suddenly under her and she smashed into the polished wood with a gasp.The deck and riggings creaked around her, the old airship beginning to right itself again. 

Rolling to her back, she released the blades and fumbled through bloody, slick fingers to untie the knot at her middle.Once free, she sprung up and ran to the railing, looking over with quick glances.

Already several yards below them, the bodies of the creatures were falling through the clouds, blood trailing up from their dark forms. 

Rey released the breath she’d been holding, her mouth agape as she stared at the last of their pursuers. 

She laughed.“Okay, I can’t believe _that_ worked!” she said over the rush of wind.She let out a hoop of victory as she crossed the deck and headed up the stairs to helm, where Chewie met her with a loud baying roar. 

“I think it’s time we find the Uprising and bring them home,” she said to the yeti, giving him a slap on the back. 


	16. The Last Dragonslayer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Queen Leia is reunited with her brother one last time. On the cusp of victory, Kylor is challenged by the ghosts of his past. Poe comes up with a brilliant plan to save the Uprising.

*Leia sat, slouched, inside the strategy room of the stronghold, her cane resting against her knee.She stared out passed the wide archway into the devastation of the main hall.She had heard the muffled screams of her men outside, had ordered the last of the healers to summon a retreat and had seen with her own eyes the force of her son’s rage punching through their iron doors, leaving their only protection useless. 

There would be no way out of this one.Not this time. No reinforcements to rescue them and nothing to protect them while they came up with some miraculous, half-crazed plan to save themselves. 

She’d known this from the moment they’d left the Raddus, but somehow seeing the end in sight suddenly made it feel that much more a certainty. 

The old days of hope were gone. Dead in the ashes of Kylor’s rise. She wondered if Ben would still be there enough — if he would show mercy on his mother as he had done before. Perhaps she could plead for as many lives as possible if he would listen. 

The thought of begging made the Skywalker blood within her cringe, but she’d do it gladly if it meant saving her loyal followers.She wouldn’t hesitate, not for a moment. 

Yet she knew, without a doubt, that the dragon would show no mercy, regardless of how she bent her pride. Regardless of how she appealed to the boy who had been her son. 

This would be the end. The last spark of hope for the Kingdom would finally be snuffed out for good. But at least they wouldn’t go out quietly.

Leia had Poe working on a valiant, stupid plan to take as many Order soldiers down with them as they could.He usually excelled at insane, suicidal plans, even without her guidance, so she had every confidence the Uprising would die in a glorious blaze of rebellion against the Darkness. 

Though in the end, the Darkness would win.

An aura washed over her, as familiar to her as her own soul.Strong. Stubborn. Gentle. Full of sadness with equal parts resolve and uncertainty.And enough regret to nearly smother his radiant light. 

Luke. 

She knew before he even appeared at the doorway. She looked up at him as he pulled back his hood, the way all Knights seemed to do when they wanted to add some drama to their arrival, as if she wouldn’t know her own twin immediately. 

Leia suppressed her smile — and the tears that threatened to spill out — at the sight of her brother.She had come into the world with him, and while they had been separated for nearly twenty years after, she was glad to depart the world with him now, to join in the Sacred Magic forever. 

He swept across the strategy room and sat, unnaturally soundless, next to her. There was something different about him.Odd even.Though she couldn’t quite place it.His bright blue eyes were luminous in the shaft of light that streamed in from the hall.Light from the gaping hole her son had burst into the stronghold. 

Luke’s gaze reflected everything she felt in his aura and he open his mouth to speak.But a mischief spirit rose within her aging, tired bones in spite of the gravity of their situation. 

She held up a hand to hush him.“I know what you’re going to say.Don’t worry,” she said, a small smile gracing her lips. 

His brow furrowed and he tilted his head ever so slightly. “You do?”

“Yes.”The confidence in her voice made him even more confused.“I’ve changed my hair.”She patted the elaborate mass of coiled plaits atop her head. 

Her smile turned to a devilish smirk as Luke stared at her for a beat, closed his eyes and shook his head, incredulous at the light-hearted remark.When he opened them again, he smiled, wide and clear, as he had once upon another time and place when they both were young and fearless. 

“It looks good on you that way,” he replied, the two of them speaking as if he was just dropping in for a casual visit.But that brief flash of joy Leia had so deeply missed drowned under the current of Luke’s heavy heart. “Leia, I’m so sorry.”The wells of his eyes glistened with emotion. 

She turned her gaze away in fear her pain would bleedthrough in shining tears.She would be no good to anyone if she lost herself now. She’d cry when she was dead.

“I know, Luke.I know.”Swallowing her emotion, she set her dark eyes upon him in a pointed looked, telling him she knew he meant about _everything_ — and that she had forgiven him.She sent the feeling through her aura.“I’m just glad you’re here with me…in the end.” 

Luke dropped his sight to the floor.“I came here to face him, Leia.”He looked at her again.Regret surged through his aura.“But I can’t save him.”

He didn’t have to say Ben’s name.She knew. 

She nodded and cleared the dryness in her throat that made her voice sound hoarse.“I know that too.I carried hope for him for so long.But no longer. I know, now, the boy I love is gone.Lost to the dragon.”

Again, her emotions surged to the surface and she struggled not to think of the willowy boy who wore his heart on his sleeve and loved to snuggle by the hearth on cold mornings while she read to him. 

She banished the past with a quick blink. 

Luke stared at her evenly and hopeful.He gave a comforting smile.“After all we’ve been through, my dear sister, you know that no one is ever really gone.”

He was right, of course.He’d been the one to resurrect their father from the dragon he’d become.A prince-turned-farmboy-turned-Knight.Luke might not be able to save Ben, but perhaps someone else could.

Hope glowed like an ember inside her, in spite of the Darkness that loomed outside the stronghold.She held out her hand, needing to feel the reassurance of her twin one last time.Without hesitation, he clasped his good palm over hers. 

But no warmth greeted her senses.Only a cold tickle as something dropped in her grasp. She raised her brows at Luke but he only smirked.When he removed his hand, a small trinket glinted in the light.She recognized it at once.

The rabbit’s foot charm that Han had dangled from The Falcon’s helm wheel.The charm he always swore had nothing to do with magic, even after all the impossible miracles that old airship had come through time after time. Her valiant curmudgeon of a pirate.Her Han.

Luke stood and took her face his hands, whatever oddness about him washed away by his love and affection.He bent down and kissed her forehead and she knew, then, that this was a goodbye.The very last time she would ever see her brother.A final farewell. 

This time, when the emotions welled up, she let her tears drip down her cheek.

He smiled at her and silently departed the way he’d come, bumping into Ceapio as he went. The dryad stared wide-eyed and unblinking at Luke, and as he passed Ceapio, Luke gave him wink.

The tree fae continued to stare after him, even as her brother disappeared through the chaos of the hall.

“I say!Was that…Master Luke?” he asked.

Leia brushed the moisture from her chin and straightened herself.“Yes, it was.He came to help us.Though I wish it could change the outcome.”

“Then, perhaps, my Queen, it will lift your spirits to know that Commander Dameron has requested an urgent meeting for all the remaining rebels.It seems that he has an idea to escape.”

She gave the lanky dryad a sceptical look.She sighed, curious but unwilling to be hopeful until she’d heard everything. 

“Alright, then. Tell him I’m coming.” 

She watched Ceapio shuffle out of the strategy room and she stood to follow after him, her knees creaking with pain at the effort. She winced and then let out a curse.

“Great,” she muttered.“He’s the tree man and _I’m_ the one creaking with the wind. Fantastic.” 

\------------------------

*As she reached the main hall, the sunlight and bitter wind seeping in through the gaping hole in the doors, she saw the remaining twenty, uninjured members of the Uprising clustered around Poe as he spoke animatedly over the crackling rush of dragonfire and Kylor’s roars outside the stronghold. 

Whatever Luke was doing, she hoped it was working. 

“I know everyone is frantic right now but I’m telling you it’s worth the shot!Those little ice kitsunes live in these mountains too, so they have to know a way out of these caves to hunt.If we follow them, I know in my guts that we’ll find a way out of this.It’s not like the alternative is better.” 

Poe looked around the circle, trying to catch eyes as he went.He held himself confident and full of his usual Flyboy attitude.But Leia knew him better than that.She could see desperation behind his passion and gusto.The hope that danced wildly in his eyes. 

“We can keep the Uprising alive today and be the spark that burns the Order to the ground.You just have to trust me,” Poe concluded. 

Suddenly, everyone became aware of Leia’s presence at once and turned to look at her, intent and expectant. She had been so engrossed in her own thoughts that she wondered if she had missed something.She looked down at her clothes and when nothing seemed out of place, she turned as well to make sure they weren’t staring at someone else. 

She faced them, raising a brow.“Well, don’t look at _me_.You heard the man.There’s a spark to save!”

With that, Poe rushed forward, grinning, grabbing any supplies he could easily carry.In seconds, the injured rebels were hoisted from their spots and draped between whoever was willing to brace them as they walked.Those too hurt to walk were supported by whatever magic the fae amongst their ranks could muster.Anything to get all the rebels moving deeper into the caves and away from their demise. 

They spotted a group the small fae foxes — the ice kitsunes that Poe had spoken of — and the Uprising picked their way through the tunnels, following the little creatures where they led.Their crystalline fur made tinny clinks and clanks as they frolicked down the dark passageways.

As they entered down a darker tunnel, the rebels’ torch lights almost swallowed up in the immensity of it, Leia heard a great, anguished dragon roar that gave her pause.She looked behind her into the nothingness.The sound echoed through her as if she were as cavernous as the labyrinth of the stronghold. 

Luke.

Ben.

She swallowed and continued on with her group, raising a silent petition to the Sacred Magic for a miracle. 

\--------------------

*Kylor’s head throbbed with the thrill of victory.

And relief.

Soon, he would do what no dragon before him had ever done.His nightmare, his pain would finally come to an end the moment he crushed the thing that had stolen everyone from him.The rebellion against the Darkness, with their idealistic fantasies of heroes and martyrs and Knights slaying dragons for the good of the Kingdom.The poison that had turned the scavenger away from him, despite her own villainous Darkness. 

It would be over, bringing him peace and freedom for the first time in his life.Snoke was gone.The rebels would be gone. The Light would retreat for another handful of decades.

He stepped out further on the balcony of his trimaran and raised his hand aloft in triumph, his ears ringing with the cheers of the Order all around him.Just before he gave the signal for them to march on the stronghold, he flinched at the touch of an aura.

A Skywalker aura.

His brows furrowed.His mother?It felt like her strength and warmth, but that was impossible.He had seen her disappear in a fiery explosion of smoke and ship debris.She couldn’t be alive. 

The aura grew closer, slamming up against his, and Kylor went utterly cold, and not from the icy weather. 

*Out of the melted door of the stronghold, a robed figure stepped into the snowy, blood-streaked valley, carrying a Sword of Light at his hip. 

A flash of numbness, calm and cutting, washed over Kylor as images and memories played, unsolicited, across his mind.Memories of false love and care. Memories instilling the importance of family, both blood and adopted.The image of his uncle’s shadowed face, bathed in the green light of Bhardyl at midnight. 

Everything the noble, valiant Sir Luke the Skywalker ever told him was a falsehood that had destroyed his humanity.That had pushed him into becoming a monster.

He swung around and approached Hucks at helm. 

His command was low and even. “I want every cannon, arrow and bolt aimed at that Knight and on my signal, fire _everything_.”

Hucks looked to him with contempt but, smartly, said nothing before turning and shouting Kylor’s command out to the rest of the armada, where it would be relayed to all the ships and soldiers. 

Kylor opened his wings and took to the air, dawning the dragon’s form once again.He circled high above where Luke stood, letting the numbness of his rage steady the fibres of his being.Letting the fires within him strengthen the resolve to end his uncle for good.To avenge the boy that had died a decade ago. 

He channeled it all inside him and a roar ripped through the clear, crisp mountains before he sent a stream of dragonfire raining down upon Luke.He revelled as he saw the cannons and arrows hurling and exploding around the spot, a perfect storm of fire and steel.

More.

_More!_

Kylor didn’t relinquish his attack until he felt his uncle’s aura retreating and fading from him.He banked around the pillar of thick smoke and let the dragon’s form slip from him as he lighted on the wooden deck of his trimaran. 

He waited with anticipation as the smoke began to clear high into the sky. 

His breath caught when he saw the horrifying sight left in the middle of the carnage. 

“No,” he whispered. It was so faint that he barely heard it come from his lips.He ignored how small and fragile the word had sounded.Cutting frustration and a strange, traitorous relief lodged themselves in his throat.

He swallowed. 

Luke stood in the valley, poised and completely unscathed by the attacks.Which was impossible, even for a Knight.For a Skywalker. 

How?

His uncle looked up at him and brushed off his shoulders in a mock of the dragons efforts. 

Kylor felt the fire in veins crying out for release once again.But a dread had seeped into his bones that dragged him down into an unfeeling place.He suppressed the burning sensation as he stared, unblinking, at Luke. 

This would have to be done the Knight’s way.Face to face. Sword to sword.It seemed only fitting that he should finally defeat his uncle in battle, the way Luke had started their enmity in the beginning.This time, he was not an unarmed boy sleeping within the false safety of his bed.And this time, he wouldn’t flee until his uncle was dead. 

He turned and addressed Hucks.“I’m going down there to face him.If I give the signal, I want every arsenal we have in the armada to fire upon him until we have nothing left.Is that clear?”

The General bit at his tongue with a scowl, his skin reddening.“It’s just one man!” he blurted, shrill and sharp. “Our forces can easily skirt around him.And if you think for one _moment_ that I’m going to let you waste our arsenal on this, then —“

Hucks went crashing into the side of the trimaran as Kylor batted him hard with his wing, the General’s fragile, mundane body crunching with the impact. 

The dragon looked back at Hucks’ second in command. The commander showed no sign of emotion as he gave a quick nod. 

“As you command, my Liege,” he said.

Satisfied, Kylor swept his wings and lifted into the sky.He flew to meet his mortal enemy on the open field, the only thing standing in the way of his conquest. 

He knew that this would be the first time his uncle would have seen his face since that haunting night.And it would be the last face Sir Luke the Skywalker would ever see. 

*When his feet touched the snowy ground, he gave his wings an aimless flap, holding them high above him and casting a shadow over Luke’s features.Then, he tucked them tightly against his back.Kylor held the hilt of his sabre with a numb grasp, igniting it with one swift, downward flourish.It crackled and roared in his hand, sending waves of heat across the bare skin of his face. 

He brandished the flaming column at Luke.“Did you come back all this way just to say you forgive me, like a _good_ Knight?To save my _soul_?” He couldn’t help the bitter bite that edged his tone.

It ran too deeply to keep under chains. 

Luke raised his brows in one of the most sincere looks of honesty he’d ever seen in his uncle.

“No.”The old Knight unsheathed the Sword from his belt and the blue glow reflected off the blemished, churned-up snow surrounding them. The red soil of the mountain terrain peaked through the white and grey and black like gaping wounds in pale flesh, making a macabre duelling ground. 

Digging his heels into the snow, Kylor rushed forward, swinging and slashing the fire blade at his uncle with a back-handed grip and enough strength to make the blow jarring, if not fatal. 

His attack was with met with no resistance and he stumbled instead, catching himself at the last moment.He whirled around, keeping his eyes on Luke.His uncle stared evenly across from him, as if nothing in the world were amiss. 

Somehow, he had dodged the attack with a speed Kylor didn’t think he’d still have in him. 

The dragon crouched, holding the blazing column between him and Luke like a burning barrier to keep the past at bay.He surveyed his uncle with the eyes of a strategist, trying to discover any weakness in the old Knight. 

But as he looked him over, invading memories barged into his mind: 

The Knight Temple, nestled deep in the rolling countryside, where he once stood like this with Luke, a smile on his face at the cheeky attack move he had just successfully tried on his mentor.A laugh from them both as Luke ruffled his dark hair and compared him to his mother.That had been a little over a year before the attack that sent him into the arms of the dragon. 

The images melted away and left a searing scorch behind, burning inside his chest like a stab wound. 

Growling, Kylor attacked again, this time using his wings to give him a burst of speed.He slashed out at Luke, skidding to a stop after realizing his uncle had ducked the blow as nimbly as a jackrabbit. 

It unnerved him greatly. 

Luke held up his glowing blade.“I failed you, Ben.In more ways than I can express.I’m sorry,” Luke said. 

The sincerity in his tone and in his eyes made the burning in Kylor’s chest excruciating. How dare he come forward to delay the Order’s victory — his victory — and say what that broken boy had once needed to hear years ago before he’d allowed the dragon nature to eat up his soul. How dare he keep him from his vengeance, now that he had finally won. 

Still, his voice faltered when his spoke. 

“I’m _sure_ you are!”He cringed at how very much like the Captain he’d sounded. 

He couldn’t fall for the Knight’s lies.Luke had never truly been on his side.He disregarded the small voice inside of him that begged him to listen.

“The Uprising is dead…soon crushed and scattered to the wind. The war is finally over.And when I have the pleasure of killing you, I will have ended the last Dragonslayer.”

Luke smirked.“Incredible.Everything you just said is wrong.Have you understood nothing, Ben?The Uprising is reborn this day, like a phoenix from the ashes of your anger.The war has only begun.And I will _not_ be the last Knight.”He gave Kylor a knowing look that left the dragon hollow.

He meant the sandlark.

Kylor took a shuddering breath under the stab that came from thinking about her.Knowing his minions had been no match for her.He understood then, that Luke knew it too. 

He swallowed, shoving down the memories of her that surfaced. 

“I’ll _destroy_ her,” he said.The moment it left his lips, it was a lie, no matter how he wished for it to be true.What slivers of his human heart remained still held onto her and the irony made him feel sick. “And I’ll destroy you.And all of it. _Everything_.”

Luke’s gaze pierced him but Kylor wouldn’t look away. 

“No.Strike me down in anger, Ben, and I’ll always be with you.Just like your father.”

His father.A flash of the past crossed his mind — the Captain’s eyes wide with the pain of death, his hand gentle on Kylor’s face as his life faded away.The voice of Snoke rattled through him.

_You have too much of your father’s heart in you, Young Solo_.

He couldn’t take it anymore.It had to end. The ghosts had to die. 

Kylor bared his teeth and let out guttural growl as he charged headlong towards Luke, roaring blade held aloft.

He felt the easy slice of his sabre cut as he drew it across his uncle’s torso at full speed.His feet scuffed the snow, leaving a red gouge turned up beneath him.As he caught his breath, too shocked to lower his weapon from its killing blow, he let a wave of release wash over him, rinsing the pain from his chest. 

The boy he’d once been was finally avenged. 

Feeling light, he turned around to confirm with own eyes that it was finished. 

But only horror flooded his guts, chasing away whatever welcome numbness had comforted him.

Luke stood behind him, completely unharmed, giving Kylor a deep, sympathetic look.

How…?

The dragon’s eyes flicked to Sword in his uncle’s hands and he realized how stupid he’d been.He looked down at his bandaged hand.

That same Sword had cut his grasp to the bone and snapped under the weight of his struggle with the sandlark. 

Sahar —a broken Sword, now impossibly whole and in Luke’s possession. 

His blood iced over.He took one step and then another.Then, he stared at Luke, not being to help his curiosity. He raised the sabre’s flame and pushed it slowly through his uncle’s chest.It glided with little resistance, yet left no wound at all. 

A spell. An illusion.All this time. 

His words to the scavenger came back to him now. 

_You’re not doing this.No, the effort required for that kind of spell would kill you_.

A bitter sense of finality curled up inside him. He knew that wherever his uncle actually was, he would be dead very soon anyways.Just not by Kylor’s blade. 

Luke’s gaze was soft and watery and Kylor saw that he knew his fate — had chosen it.The old Knight gave a half-smile.“I’ll see you around, kid.”And then his facade faded away in the frigid breeze. 

Kylor huffed. Luke had sacrificed himself for what?A doomed group of rebels who —

The rebels. 

Kylor turned to the gaping hole in the stronghold doors and understood, with cutting, glaring clarity, why Luke had given his life for their confrontation.It had all been an elaborate distraction.

His breath faltering, he whirled around, dazed with the poison of his own foolishness. 

They were gone.Out of reach yet again.He didn’t have to see it to know the truth. 

He extinguished his sabre and flared his wings, letting the dragon’s voice tear through the empty mountain range. 


	17. The Spark Lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sir Luke sacrifices himself for the good of the Kingdom -- and his nephew. Rey rescues the rebels from a dead end tunnel and afterwards, experiences something that changes her perspective. Queen Leia confesses she knows Rey's secret affections for her son. Darkness stirs in a remote corner of the Kingdom.

*Luke opened his eyes to the beginnings of a spectacular sunset, gold and pink and orange patching the sky in streaks of light and cloud.Drained, he fell from his floating meditation to the hard stone platform of Ahch-To’s temple.He had never felt so completely exhausted in all his life and his clothes and skin were drenched in perspiration.His breaths came out in laboured rasps that shot pain all through his body.And he knew it wasn’t from the fall.

The exertion of the spell, of channeling so much of himself into the Magix, had done a damage to him deeper than any wound.But he had known the spell would claim him before he’d even attempted it. 

Leia would live to soldier on another day, taking the spark of hope with her. And that was the least he could give to her after his years of abandonment.After what his actions had stolen from her. It wasn’t enough, but he held satisfaction in knowing his younger self — the hero — would be proud that he had saved the Uprising without shedding a drop of blood. 

Except perhaps his own.

He coughed violently, crimson splattering on the sleeve his robe.He touched his ear and the wetness slicking down his neck came away red as well. 

Using what little strength he had left, Sir Luke the Skywalker, the Last Dragonslayer — who never actually slew an dragons at all — reached out for the ledge of the platform and pulled himself to sitting.He wanted to see the sun’s light dancing in gilded flecks over the lonely ocean; let that beauty be the last thing his eyes saw of the Kingdom. 

If this final spell worked, he would leave behind no body to bury, for the Magix would take him wholly once it was complete.He’d be enveloped in the current, free to join those who had gone before him in the Sacred Magic’s flow. 

He closed his eyes, imaging their faces when they met again.Welcoming him.Not as a hero, but as one beloved. 

A hand rested on his shoulder and he looked up into the translucent face of his father.Anakin smiled warmly at him, pride shining in his eyes — eyes as crystal blue as Luke’s. 

Another face appeared behind Anakin.Obi Wan.His white beard parted in a wide smile. 

Finally, the ghost of his goblin mentor, Yoda, came in between them.

The ghosts placed their hands on Luke and though they faded from his sight, he could feel them still, their presence giving him peace as he recited the ancient words of ascension.Once the final words passed through his lips, the pain in his body disappeared and he felt his strength drying up, like a puddle of water sieving through the hot sands in Tattooine. 

It would only be a few moments now. 

He thought of Ben, the pain and torment storming in hisnephew’s eyes.He had meant every word of apology he’d said.He wished he’d found a way to say it sooner.Perhaps it would have changed everything.He hoped for Ben’s sake, that Rey would be the one stubborn enough — brave enough — to help lead him out of the Darkness and find a way to free him of the dragon.Luke’s father had sacrificed himself to kill his dragon and Luke hoped better for his nephew.

Ben’s purpose wasn’t over.Luke felt it in the tremble of his bones.But neither was his own purpose.The Magix held more for him and once he was unbound, that journey would begin.The path would be open.

He gazed deeply, greedily, at the horizon on fire.The light bounced off the clouds, making it look like twin suns held hands in the amber sky, a fitting farewell. The illusion touched the tops of the water, sending embers shimmering across the ocean like fireflies at midnight. 

His body shook, trembled. It was time.

Sir Luke the Skywalker let his final breath go, taking all of him with it into the Magix’s current. 

\---------------------

*Rey stood on a jagged outcropping, looking down at the landslide of boulders that muffled the Queen’s aura.She felt it as The Falcon flew over one of the mountain valleys, ebbing in strength as if the rocks were stifling it.They had landed the airship precariously upon a flattened peak overlooking a gouge between another. 

Queen Leia’s aura seeped through the cracks of the rock, an invisible signal of hope.Somewhere beyond that barrier, the Uprising was trapped with the Order in pursuit. 

She took a deep breath, the sound of distant roars echoing off the mountains.She knew what had to be done, but thinking back on her time training in the temple — by herself — she remembered how feebly she’d been able to control her magic trying to levitate the small stone.Her confidence waned. 

“I guess it’s back to lifting rocks,” she said on the wind.She pushed down the lingering doubt and closed her eyes,letting her magic rise, opening her aura to the Sacred Magic. 

Extending her hand forward, she thought of all she had been through, all she had gained and lost and gained again.She thought of Finn and the Queen and the few friendly rebels who had been kind to her in the weeks she’d been at their camp. She focused her power, wrapping it around each boulder, feeling the weight of them under her grasp.They were all that separated her from those she cared about. 

Shaking with concentration, she slowly turned her palm up and lifted her arm.

The stones creaked, groaned and clattered under her power.But she didn’t open her eyes. Not yet.Not until she had complete control. 

She lifted her arm higher, feeling the resistance of the rocks push against her magic. 

More groaning and clanking.

The cold of the mountain air, the smell of the sparse pines, reminded her of the night she had escaped the Fortress. When she and Ben fought in the forest. 

She had hated him then, only a few weeks ago.But she couldn’t help thinking now about the fluffy snowflakes that had fallen that night.How they fell around Ben’s face as he gazed at her in wonder, the snow collecting on black, sweaty strands of his hair.That she could have just blown them free, weightless, if she had wanted. 

She realized then that the rocks were light under her grasp — like snowflakes drifting down through the forest.She opened her eyes, relaxing the furrow of concentration between her brows.The boulders floated all around her, silent and looming.And there, staring back at her from the opening of the cavern with astonishment in his eyes, was a face she’d missed dearly.

Finn. 

His smile came instantly at the sight of her and he ran to her without hesitation.She saw the beads of sweat sparkling on his dark skin as she hastily discarded the rocks to either side of the cavern exit, creating a clear aisle directly to The Falcon’s ladder. 

Finn grinned, a glisten of emotion welling in his eyes.He threw his arms around her so brusquely that she grunted.Rey returned his affection equally. 

Her first real friend.Her family.The brother she never got to grow up with.Relief and joy washed over her and dripped down her cheek. 

She had forced herself not to think about whether or not he’d been a victim in the battle.It would have been too hard to process. But now the stress and worry of that burden passed under the warmth of his embrace and she couldn’t help the sob that escaped her.Finn held her tighter.

“It okay.We’re going to be alright, thanks to you. It’s going to be alright now,” he soothed.She nodded into his arm, taking a deep steadying breath.

Then, she realized.

Those tears weren’t just hers. They were Finn’s too.

She felt the joy and relief through his aura.

Rey pulled away from him, keeping a grip on his shoulders. She looked him over, not caring about the confusion on his face. 

He was a Magic-Born too. 

Not very strong in his power yet - his aura was faint enough that she needed to touch him to know it was there. But he was a Magic-Born all the same. 

She smiled widely at him.

Over his shoulder, the Queen caught Rey’s eyes as an inhuman growl reverberated through the peaks.Queen Leia nodded gravely at her. 

Right.The Uprising needed to get out of there, fast. She released Finn. 

“We need to get them out of the cave and onto The Falcon.There’s lots of room below deck.Hurry,” she said to her friend.She squeezed his shoulders in encouragement. 

Finn gave a quick nod and ran over to where Poe stood.She watched as Finn relayed her message and they both began ushering the rebels, wounded and ragged, towards the old airship. 

As Rey went to speak with the Queen, she saw Finn bend down over a small, unconscious woman, cradled in the embrace of a tangle of unnatural vines.Ceapio stood behind the vines and she knew it was his magic that had summoned them.Finn brushed his hand over her cheek and kissed her forehead.

A pang struck Rey through like the quick jab of a dagger and she pushed Ben’s memory down as far as it would go, trying not to think of the child-like way he’d looked in the rubble of the state room. 

She swallowed and turned to Queen Leia.

“Are you alright?” she asked the Queen, looking down at her cane, the bruises coating her hands. 

She nodded, a familiar sadness resting in her eyes. “I’m fine.Takes more than a little explosion to keep me down…or up, in this case.”

Rey gave the Queen a questioning look and she waved it off, signalling that she’d explain later. 

“How many did we lose?”

“Too many…far too many.”Queen Leia shook her head and grasped Rey’s hand.“But let’s not make their loss in vain.We’ll regroup.Find out whey our allies ignored our call for aid.And we’ll come back, stronger I hope.”She rested her hand on Rey’s cheek, wiping away a lingering tear. “For now, our focus is on them.” She pointed the rebels slowly climbing aboard the airship.“What’s left of them. Come, dear.We have much to do.”

Queen Leia smiled. 

Suddenly, a ripple went through Rey’s aura, as if something had punched a hole through it.A void was left in its wake, like a constant sound instantly silenced.Leia swayed on her feet and Rey knew she had felt it too. 

Sir Luke.He was gone. 

Shock numbed her limbs and she looked at the Queen.

She only nodded her head and closed her eyes.“He saved us.Gave us another shot.I’ll tell you about it when everyone’s onboard.”

Her grief-filled aura closed off from Rey, then, and she headed for the airship.Rey shook her head free from the shock and went to help Poe and Finn.

\-------------------------

*Kylor knelt on the hard, dirt floor of what seemed to be the stronghold’s strategy room.His breaths were even with the calmness of defeat. 

He had failed.Always failed. 

His uncle had died a hero. The Uprising had escaped to continue its infection through the Kingdom, and the last of the Dragonslayers lived.It had all come apart.

A glinting object caught his attention and he plucked it off the floor.Held in his bandaged palm, his father’s lucky rabbit’s foot rolled from side to side under Kylor’s scrutiny.It looked exactly the same as it once did hanging from the spokes of the helm wheel. 

His father’s smirking face flooded his mind, the hollow ache it brought seeping into his bones.He refused to think about what that feeling meant.If he admitted it to himself, the rest of his seams would come undone. 

_See you around, kid_. 

That was the last thing the old pirate captain said to him when his parents gave him over to Luke’s care.At that time, he’d fully believed his father’s words, though they would mean nothing in the end except torment and pain.Now, they rattled around inside him, jarring things loose that Kylor never intended to visit again.Especially not after all had broken and shattered in his hands. 

His breath hitched and caught. 

Her aura billowed through the room like a fresh summer breeze, stealing the ache in his chest.Surprised, he flicked his gaze up and met her eyes squarely.Rey seemed equally taken aback, her hazel stare wide with the revelation.

So, it hadn’t been Snoke’s trick after all. Nor Rey’s.

He gnawed at his tongue bitterly, knowing how he had tainted their genuine connection with his fear.And his hollow hate. 

He saw it in her eyes too — the same realization.Her shock gave way to something else.Her features sharpened and turned stern.Though a sadness clung to her aura, she was disappointed. 

Kylor had expected anger or indifference.But not that. Perhaps she had wanted what had wanted too.Perhaps her body also ached at the loss of what could have been. 

He still felt her lips on his, haunting what small pieces of his human heart remained.He resisted the urge to touch his mouth, as if he could wipe away the imprint she’d left on his soul. 

Her eyes never left his as her hands worked to pull up a rope ladder — more detail of her surroundings than he had ever seen.And with an audible snap, a sail rose up between them, cutting off their connection in an instant. 

He flinched at the sudden severing, an invisible arrow piercing him through.He looked down at his father’s luck charm, numbness permeating his core.The weight of it in his palm evaporated until the charm blew away like dust. 

Another enchantment designed to torture a part of him that was already in agony, it seemed. 

The thought crossed his mind to take to the air and hunt Rey down, using her aura as a beacon to the fate of the Uprising.To end it all in fire and fear. 

But he couldn’t. Their connection — their bond — proved to him that Rey felt something for him, too.That there was even a piece of her that longed for him back.And despite the will of the dragon nature, he couldn’t destroy that.

Eventually, she would join him, if he just waited long enough. 

\-------------------

*The look in Ben’s eyes before she ended their connection embossed itself into her mind. A picture that wouldn’t go away. 

_Stay_.

Rey slammed her eyes shut, though it didn’t help anything at all.He was still there, in her head and her heart and her body. He always would be. 

She dropped the rope ladder on the deck and walked through the crowd of rebels that now occupied The Falcon, many busily helping Chewie with crew tasks.It was probably the most people the old airship had carried in a long time.Below deck, the three remaining healers tended to the wounded with whatever supplies The Falcon had available. 

She was already half-way down the steps to the hold before she realized who she sought.Queen Leia had gone down into the ship with Poe to talk strategy the moment she had boarded.Someone had offered to escort her but she’d given an outraged cluck of her tongue before giving them an earful.Apparently, some of the rebels had forgotten who’s ship it was. 

Rey’s desire to be near someone who had felt the same heaviness, the same losses, that she had drove her towards the Queen’s company.She barely remembered her own mother, like a hazy dream of childhood.But if anyone could come close to being that, it was Queen Leia. 

She found her sitting on a crate in the middle of the crew deck, instructing healers and helpers on where to find supplies and tools for opening the other cargo.Rey quietly took a seat next to her. 

The Falcon swayed and jostled suddenly, probably catching the edge of thermal.Rey caught the Queen smirking at all the whispered curses that spread throughout the deck at the turbulent movement.She sent Rey a conspiratorial wink when she realized she been watched.Rey gave a weak smile back before the Queen’s attention was turned by a question.

Rey pulled the broken pieces of Sahar from her belt, rust-coloured flakes falling to the floor, and stared down at it.Its etched inscription of Guild runes was interrupted by the break in the steel. 

How would she repair such a sacred weapon?She’d never forged anything in her life.Perhaps one of the withered tomes she’d liberated from Ahch-To could tell her. After all, they contained the very foundations of the Knighthood itself. She just had to figure out how to read them.

Another, weaker aura brushed against hers as a strong hand rested on her shoulder. She lifted her head in time to see Finn smile tightly at her as he passed by.She returned the gesture and watched as her friend sat beside the unconscious girl he’d kissed on the mountain, worry and affection radiating from him.The girl, probably not much older than Rey was, lay in a hammock with a nasty gash bisecting the large goose egg on her head.Finn’s jawfeathered beneath his skin, his face so intent on her small, round face. 

Whatever had happened since she’d left for Ahch-To, it had changed him and gifted him with someone to give his heart to. It was obvious.And she was glad.

Rey looked down again at the twained sword in her hands.The soot and the blood from her battle with the Order.And Ben’s blood. 

She peaked at Finn and his love from under her brows.Seeing them together, in the open and on the same side of the war, made her heart feel hollow and heavy in her chest, aching all the way through to her back as if a blade had been lodged there.Not out of jealousy for Finn.But of him.

The one she longed for had to be left behind.At least for now. 

The Queen’s aura reached out for her and and she turned to see Queen Leia’s gaze upon her. 

Rey sighed.“Sir Luke is gone, isn’t he?”

Her pained smile played at a glimmer of mischief in her dark eyes.“As a scruffy old man once said to me, no one is ever really gone.”Her smile deepened and tears glistened like glass under The Falcon’s lamplight.“But he has left us, yes.Though, I can’t help but wonder if we won’t see him again before too long.The Sacred Magic isn’t done with him yet…I feel it.”

Rey wanted to cry.She truly did.She’d felt Sir Luke’s passing the moment it happened and yet a block, like a stone stopping up the flow of sand in a funnel, had jammed itself over the pressure of emotion that churned and bubbled inside her. 

So many losses. How could she feel them all and still hold herself together?

Queen Leia set a gentle look on her and reached her war-weathered hand across the expanse between them, placing it over the hand that held Sahar’s hilt.Her rings scattered the lamplight to dance on the wooden ceiling. 

“You don’t have to mourn for him, my dear,” she said and Rey furrowed her brow.Before she could speak her confusion, the Queen held up a shushing hand.“I can feel in your aura, Rey…the pain…the heartache.”She narrowed her deep brown stare, so like Ben’s, and a shrewd smirk curved her mouth. “But it isn’t all about Luke, is it?”

Stunned, Rey pulled her gaze away.After a moment, she shook her head in answer and met the Queen’s glance. But Queen Leia regarded her intently, as if trying to decipher smudged words on a piece of parchment. 

At last, she nodded and her smirk turned into a smile, putting sparkles in her eyes despite the exhaustion etched in the lines of her face. 

“You love him.” 

Rey’s breath halted and it took everything to keep her features blank. 

Queen Leia leaned in.“You love the dragon…my son,” she corrected.“My Ben.” 

She said it so softly that Rey knew no one else could have heard it.Her heart pounded furiously at the thought of someone knowing what she had only just discovered for herself.

The Queen squeezed her hand in reassurance.The knowledge would be safe between them.And Rey gave the slightest nod of confirmation. 

“Then perhaps there’s hope left for him still.”She patted Rey’s hand.

Rey wet her cracked lips.“My duty is always to you and the Kingdom first.I won’t let my heart lead me to Darkness.But I fear that I don’t have enough to do what it takes to help win this.”

“Rey, take a look around this ship.We have everything we need right here.”She placed a hand on her chest and on Rey’s.“As long as we live, the spark burns on.”

She gave the Queen a half-smile and looked down at Sahar’s pieces. 

What was broken could be made whole again. 

\-------------------------------

*Deep in the core of the temple, lightning screamed as it struck the floor next to where the throne sat.The flash illuminated the six jutting spires that radiated from the stone like a star, the crowning seat of power of the Shadow Thanes.The Empire

His deep, rumbling laugh echoed off the shale walls.He’d felt Snoke’s presence disappear like a snuffed candle and now, to his incredible delight, Luke the Skywalker had also passed into the flow of the Magix.Taking the Emperor’s greatest opposition with him.Luke had won over him once, but never again.His rotting lips split with his wide smile, thick liquid oozing down his chin. 

Soon, the might of the Palpatine line would rise again.And this time, there would be no stopping his reign.


End file.
